canyon de chelly

one cannot tour the canyon floor without a navajo guide so i shared a jeep tour of the canyon floor with a couple from wisconsin -- she was ojibway herself --- our guide, daniel, was a good driver but riding up a wash, which is where most of the "road" runs, is bound to be rough

there are ruins all up through the canyon, on the valley floor and in niches and ledges on the canyon walls --- they're anasazi, ancestors of the hopi --- the navajo migrated into the area in the 14th or 15th century, but it became their stronghold for three centuries and their last redoubt in their fight against forced relocation in the 1860s

there is a two-mile trail, descending six or seven hundred feet to the canyon floor at the white house ruins --- no guide is required for that