Today was the laziest day we had all vacation. Our journey to Canyon De Chelly wouldn’t start until 2 pm so we had most of the morning to kill.I had a little issue with restless leg going to sleep, but when the sun came up, we were both ready and able.
First stop, the Route 66 dinner for a heart breakfast of eggs and bacon. We befriended a few locals who told us, the counter used to be full of all of their friends, but now it was just the two of them. A very somber beginning to what turned out to be a very adventurous day.
After breakfast, I realized we still had 3 hours to kill, a sign pointing towards El Morros National Monument and a quick google map calculation told us we could get to El Morros and still make our 2 pm tour.
We headed south and immediately saw the sign, entering Zuni Pueblo, which is one of the 3 major tribes with land in this area. We have been listening to the history of Native American comedians. In the process we’ve been given.a thorough history of native Americans in the SW and beyond. The Zuni reservation, much like the Navajo and the Hopi are large barren swaths of land with little infrastruction, maybe one gas station, wild horses everywhere, and a feeling of being absolutely lost. We came around the bend and there was El Morros, a giant rock in the middle of nowhere, that contained a giant basis full of water that travelers in ancient times would stop at on the journey somewhere else. These travelers would then etch their names in the rocks, and we say some going back to the 1600s. It was very cool.
We jumped back in the car on a deadline to reach the parking lot of the Thunderbird Lodge of Canyon De Chelly by 2 pm. Lucky for us the Navajo do not celebrate daylight savings time. There was also an eclipse going on while we were driving, but the cloudy New Mexico skies didnt give us much of a view.
Two and a half hours later we were pulling into the Centa motor lodge court, but this was not the way. We drove in circles a few times before finally calling the place. They said, its before the motor lodge, and we found the parking lot and joined the small group of people waiting to go on the tour. The four wheel drive suburban pulled up and there were too many people for Irene the guide to take. Seeing as how there were 2 young girls in the mix, we volunteers to wait for the next tour, but Irene insisted we take this one, and it wound up not being a big deal as the two young girls barely said a word the entire 3 hour trip.
Now I must warn you, a 4 wheel drive suburban sounds useless, but Irene our Navajo guide, was ruthless with this machine, and right off the bat, we drove INTO a fucking river, and that was the trip, in a nutshell. Drive into the river, out on to a sandbar, back into the river, she told us shed been doing this since 2002, so we trusted the shit out of her, but let me tell you there were times, we thought. We were fucked.
Canyon De Chelly was one of two options for us, the other being Chaco Canyon, but when we found out the road to Chaco Canyon from the south included 33 miles on a dirt roads, we signed up for the 180 dollar tour of Canyon De Chellly.
Irene our guide lived on the site her entire life. Her family was born and raised in the area, so her narration included many person stories of playing in the river, almost drowning in the river, and herding sheep through the river. She had an interesting lilt to her voice, and spoke to us in Navajo often, which she was fluent in. The 3 hour ride included 2 Pueblo’s perched very high in the cliff walls, petroglyphs of various ages, some going back thousands of years, and her lively personal stories of playing in the canyon as a child.
The two girls in the back never spoke, they were the role model of all young children in the world. If only their grandmother had paid attention.
As soon as it started, the tour was over and we made the 2 hour drive back to Gallup as quick as you can drive on a two lane reservation road. And before we knew it, we were sitting at the El Rancho eating a terrible steak dinner and many MEZZ, and sippin on a lovely margarita. After dinner we headed back over to the 49er cloud for more drinks and now back at the hotel for sleep and more sleep.
Tomorrow more adventures ending in Santa Fe. Perhaps a side "breaking bad" trip through Albuquerque.
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