10/16 After a day off to do laundry, clean, catch up on the blog and schoolwork, we were off to a new destination, Chinle, AZ and the Canyon de Chelly (pronounced d'shay). It was overcast and spitting rain most of the way there and we could see the rain storms off in the distance passing all around us. Fortunately we were not in anything heavy.
The first stop was Window Rock. From miles away one can see the massive old throat of a volcano. Erosion wore away the outside of the volcano leaving this stunning master piece behind. The Navajo name for this peak means "winged rock" or "rock with wings." The white men named it Ship Rock because it looked like a 19th century clipper ship.
Becky wanted to pass through this area because when we were at Tom and Kathy Law's on Whidbey Island, she read a bunch of Tony Hillerman books. They stories are about two Navajo cops investigating crimes in and around the Navajo lands.
After passing through the town of Ship Rock, we got closer and eventually turned off on a side road that took us down to a small turn off. We could see the spine or "dikes" of rock leading out from the main volcano cone. There isn't much of a visitors center or information area as this is considered a sacred place by the Navajo. They won't even let anyone climb the rock even though many try to do so illegally and are caught and prosecuted.
Leaving Ship Rock, we rolled down 491 to 264 and Window Rock, AZ. The cops in Tony Hillerman's books are based out of Window Rock.
Window Rock Park is dedicated to the Code Talkers from WWII who helped win the war by developing an unbreakable code that the Japanese could not defeat.
Rolling up 191 to Chinle, we got into a little rain and had beautiful views of the landscape and of unexpected rainbows.
We ended up at Cottonwood Campgrounds Canyon De Chelly. It is Navajo run and not part of the park even though it is right inside the park boundaries. This is the first national monument we have been to where there are lots of people residing in the monument boundaries. The park needed some TLC, namely cleaning up the weeds that grow thick around the sites and mowing the grounds. One nice handicap site had a large boulder blocking it. Overall the place was nice, the handicap sites were all paved and easy to get around in, the bathrooms were clean and accessible. There are no amenities so the price of $14 a night wasn't necessarily justified and the camp host wasn't around much. They were living out of an outfitter tent. I would stay here again as I would like to come back and take the tour of the canyon floor. Basically its the only place to stay.
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