Canyon de Chelly

For nearly 5,000 years, people have lived in these canyons which is longer than anyone has lived uninterrupted anywhere on the Colorado Plateau. Click on the picture to see the enlarged picture. I took these pictures when I visited.

Visitor Center

An example of a Hogan that the Native Americans lived in during one period of time.

 

This National Monument is a very large canyon made by continued erosion of the sandy soil over thousands of years. Try to get the feeling of the size of the canyon. The line in the sand is a road.

The dry river bottom has many groves of trees since the river only flows during short periods of time. The bright green is the bottom of the canyon.

There is a road along the rim of the canyon where I took these pictures. When I go back I plan to travel in the bottom of the canyon and drive across the river to explore the canyon. 

It is hard to imagine a civilization of people living and farming to make a living in the canyon.

In this picture I hope you can see the housing in the sidewall of the canyon as well as below on the bottom of the canyon. The houses in the side wall were easy to defend against enemies. The height of the canyon walls are very high and the pictures hardly do it justice in showing the size.

Here is another view of the canyon wall housing. There are two levels of housing in the picture, one above the other. The way the people got to the housing was by climbing using small hand and feet cut-outs in the sandstone sides of the canyon. One slip and it could be over.

In this picture I hope you can see the cultivated field in the center where modern day Native Americans are using the land for crops. It is easy to spot the bottom of the canyon due to the greenest vegetation on the canyon floor that gets the most moisture.  

There are many beautiful vantage points. 

Can you see the small wooden building on the canyon floor near the middle of the photo with three large trees around it?

Another building and cultivated area for crops. The river is dry now but with rains in the area water can appear without it raining in the canyon. These times are called flash floods.

In some places the canyon is very narrow. Can you see the housing in the canyon wall on the far side wall? It is almost the center of my photo just above the bend in the river.

Another bend in the river going around the big rock. See more cultivated fields. I hope you get to Canyon de Shelly some day. It is in northern AZ and not far from Monument Valley in Utah. Stop in!