Canyon de Chelly, Arizona

Canyon de Chelly (d'Shay), Arizona      April 12,2022

 

Stopping at the Visitor's Center we found this little Hogan....home of the Navajo.

Hogans are made of natural materials; cedar, bark, sand and water.  With a simple fire inside, heat remains for long hours in the winter. During the summer, the temperature is always 25% cooler than the outside temperature.

In Navajo beliefs, there is always a balance of life.  

There is a female and a male Hogan. A cone shaped home is a called a Male Hogan. It can be built quickly and taken apart to be used at another location. The round shaped home is a Female Hogan, used as a permanent home and can accommodate more people.  This particular 

Hogan is an octagonal round shape, so it is a Female Hogan.

Yesterday and today we saw lots of the round Female Hogans near  modern structured homes during our travels through Navajo land. The Hogan is still used by the elderly and for ceremonial purposes,

I loved hiking all over this rocky hillside. 

        The valley below had a stream running through it so it was a perfect place to grow crops.

                           People have lived in this canyon for over 5000 years.     Within the  side walls of the canyon,  cave dwellings  could be spotted. Archaic (2500- 200 BCE), Basket makers (200 BCE-CE750), Puebloan people (750-1300), Hopi (300-1600), and Navajo (1700-1863)  have occupied this area. How do we know? The art work by each civilization was left on the walls making these ancient galleries. 

Canyon de Shelly National Monument was established in 1931 to preserve this record of human history.

                   We rode and hiked part of the North road section. The National Park Service has gone to a lot of trouble to put in stairs and walls for the safety of all visitors. This park embraces 84,000 acres within the Navajo Reservation. These canyons still remain the home of the Navajo people.

We drove the Penthouse to the southern part of the park down Route 7 that afternoon stopping to take a few pictures. What gorgeous rock formations!

Wish we had more time to explore this area. There is a wonderful 2 hour hike into the valley. Guess we will save that for the next time. 

We stopped off in Albuquerque and had breakfast with Larry's sister, Marie and her husband, Ed.

From there we drove through Paris................Texas and 

 

on to Detroit.....Texas to spend three nights in a sweet little airbnb.

The owner had a beautiful 30 year old horse, Cosmos. He was adorable and so lovey.

I could just take Cosmos home with me.

We left Detroit and headed to Austin to help our friends, Jenny and  Graham.  They were getting married and honeymooning in Cancun. Larry and I told them that we would take care of their 

loveable dog, Gus, while they were gone.

Gus was so pitiful watching them leave.

                                               He got over them being gone real quick!