The first time I visited Arizona’s Canyon de Chelly (pronounced “de-SHAY”) National Monument, about 7 years ago, I was here to write a story. I’d just been bitten by the mother of all flu bugs, and as I bounced in the back of a flatbed 4X4 truck on a Navajo Indian-guided tour, my fever was peaking and my breakfast was about to make an encore appearance. I never wrote the story, and ever since have called the place Canyon de Misery.

I’m back now, on vacation with my girlfriend, and we’re pulling into the visitor center parking lot to meet Ben Teller, a Navajo Indian who was born in the canyon and now helps his son Adam run the family business, Antelope House Tours.

Ben and Adam are two of many Navajo guides (some operate independently, others work for big outfitters like Thunderbird Lodge Tours) who lead 4WD, hiking and horseback tours to see the amazing Ancestral Puebloan ruins and rock art within the red sandstone labyrinth that is Canyon de Chelly.

The monument is a National Park Service anomaly. It’s managed and protected by the NPS, but the land belongs to the Navajo tribe and is located on the Navajo Reservation in eastern Arizona. Throw in the fact that some Navajo still live and maintain working farms in the canyon, and you’ve got a unique set-up. With the exception of the White House Trail, visitors can only enter the canyon if escorted by an authorized Navajo guide.

On your own, you can peer into the canyon from above on one of the two “rim drives.” The views are superb, but to really feel a connection to this canyon, you need to get down between its soaring 1,000-foot-high walls. And while the big group trips (aka “the shake-n-bake tours”) offered by Thunderbird Lodge are certainly good, a private tour (much pricier) is more intimate and feels less rushed.

As Ben pilots his Jeep down the wide gravelly wash at the mouth of the canyon (there are no paved roads within the canyon), he tells us stories about growing up here. I don’t ask him his age, but when he recalls being fascinated by the first tourist he saw using an old timey box camera with flash powder bulbs, I know Ben has witnessed a lot of history.

What no living person ever saw were the Ancestral Puebloans, who built the canyon’s stone and adobe cliff dwellings between about 1100 AD and 1300 AD, and then simply vanished. The monument actually contains two canyons, which split apart a few miles up the wash. To the north is Canyon del Muerto (translation: Canyon of the Dead). To the south is our first destination, Canyon de Chelly.

The cottonwood-fringed wash meanders past green meadows, farms, hulking sandstone monoliths and the occasional hogan. Once in a while Ben pulls over to point out small cliff dwellings high on the canyon walls. Near the dwellings we typically see clusters of ancient rock art: petroglyphs and pictographs of animal figures, spirals, snakes, squiggly water symbols. With the silence broken only by the wind-rustled cottonwoods and Ben’s gentle explanations, it all begins to feel very mystical.

The mood is broken when we reach White House Ruin, the monument’s largest. Situated at the base of a soaring cliff streaked with black and dark red “desert varnish” (deposits of manganese and iron), the multi-roomed White House is one of the canyon’s most photogenic ancient dwellings. It’s also the only one you can reach (via a hiking trail) without a Navajo guide. Coupled with tour groups from Thunderbird Lodge, this means crowds are the norm. And you’ll also find Navajo vendors here selling soda, snacks, trinkets and jewelry.

After backtracking, we head up Canyon del Muerto, the location of Antelope House Ruin, and Ben’s family farm next door. A narrow dirt road winds through the canyon. Little puffs of white cottony seeds rain from the trees and dance on the breeze. We round a shady bend and emerge into the sunlight. Up ahead are bright green meadows, and tucked under an overhang, Antelope House.

The ruin, which has two largely-intact square towers near the back, is named for a Navajo pictograph of an antelope painted on the canyon wall in the 1800s. The ruin is a beauty, and though a fence prevents you from actually walking inside it, I find the angled photography vantage point from Ben’s farm (only accessible on their tours) a bit more intriguing than the standard head-on view. On top of that, we meet Ben’s grandkids, and I have an interesting chat with them about their struggles to learn to speak the Navajo language.

Back at the visitor center I thank Ben for showing us there’s more to this canyon than rocks and ruins. We hop in our own truck and take the South Rim Drive to catch sunset at the Spider Rock Overlook. If you’ve ever seen a picture of Canyon de Chelly, it has most likely been a shot of the incredible Spider Rock: two freestanding, monolithic spires that soar some 800-feet above the canyon floor. (first photo) It’s safe to say I’ll never call this place Canyon de Misery again.    



Find your way to Canyon de Chelly with TripTik Travel Planner - click on the map to see the area or to get directions from your location. Note: the museum section of the visitors center is currently closed and will reopen in May. For more information, please see the National Park Service website. Photos by Eli Ellison.