Cause 🎤🎼 “life is a Highway” 🎶, Do you remember that Song?
[Chorus]
Life is a highway
I want to ride it all night long
If you’re going my way
I want to drive it all night long
Do you remember it now?
Hey you know I can actually see for miles and miles, it looks awesome, 🎶 I can see for miles and miles, I can see for miles and miles.🎼
On our way to Chinle, Arizona.
We stopped atThe Four Corners Monument. The monument marks the spot in the Southwestern United States where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah meet. It is the only point where these four states connect.
Everyone enjoys standing, sitting, laying, or whatever in the center cause your in 4 states at the time.
When government surveyors found out where the states of Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico had come together, they installed a simple cement pad marking the spot in 1912. Over time, the monument evolved, with a granite marker bearing a copper disc established in 1992. Further improvements came in 2010 when the site added two intersecting lines through the center disc, marking the boundaries alongside the seal of each of the four states.
The Navajo Nation and Ute Tribe both own the property. They run the monument and sell their crafts and food here too. A fun stop for sure!
Our destination was the Thunderbird Lodge.
The Thunderbird Lodge is a historic lodge in Chinle Arizona. It is the only lodging facility in Canyon de Chelly National Monument, which was established in 1931. The lodge comes from an old trading post built in 1896.
The Lodge sits on the site of an 1896 trading post. It has pink adobe construction that is from the ancient pueblos. Dining is located in the original trading post and offers both continental and Navajo-style dishes. The dining room walls are adorned with Navajo rugs and artwork. A vault-like room in the center of the dining area once served as a jail for the trading post. The gift shop has some of the Native American jewelry, crafts and Navajo rugs.
The Trading Post had some really nice things.
The part of the lodge that the rooms were in was nice too. Our room # 62.
The canyon It is one of the longest continuously inhabited landscapes in North America, preserving the ruins of the Ancestral Navajo. The name “Chelly” comes from the Navajo word Tséyiʼ, meaning “canyon.” The area spans almost 84,000 acres. For nearly 5,000 years, people have used the towering sandstone walls of Canyon de Chelly.
It has 700-foot-tall sandstone walls, which was made by the Defiance Plateau (elongated uplift) into which the Chinle Wash has made its mark, creating homes for Paleo-Indians, Ancestral Puebloans, Hopi, and Navajo. Ancestral Puebloans. They built stone villages, campsites, shelters, and permanent homes, the remains of which are here today. They also survived harsh weather conditions and wars.
Now, the reason we headed out to the Lodge was to venture out on their Jeep Tours.
So on the morning of September 27th, we did just that . . .
Our jeep tour took us thru Canyon de Chelly – Ancient Home of the Navajo.
Ancient Navajo Dwellings on the cliffs.
While travelling in the jeep, Mike, our Navajo guide explained the significance of man-made structures and symbols like petroglyphs and pictographs.
These petroglyphs have horses and a person riding a horse.
Our guide told us that they call this cliff, Margareta, cause it always a hang over.
This is Cat overlook, cause the cat was looking over us as we passed through.
Another jeep behind us.
Dave is asking our guide Mike a question about the ancient Navajo Dwellings.
Mike grew up on this reservation and told us stores of being little and climbing and playing in the ancient dwellings.
Mike said the jeeps they use are, 6-wheel-drive, open-air German made Pinzgauer an all-terrain utility vehicle. They got them from the Australia sheep herders. They carry up to 10 passengers and are designed to handle the canyon’s deep sand, water crossings, and bumpy, unpaved terrain
And we did go through rough stuff, as you can see from the above pictures, Mike, us and the jeep are a rockin and a rollin.
That’s me holding on …
They call this rock formation Sleeping Duck, I agree maybe?
More petroglyphs
This is called the Dog rock formation, Well maybe?
Here you can see the oldest petroglyphs in the canyon.
We got stuck a couple of times, Mike changed gears, used the rocking method, gave it gas and let the clutch out, all the fun things you do when driving a standard. It worked the other times, but this time he stalled it.
We were stranded, for about 5 minutes and another vehicle came and picked us all up. We were only a mile from the lodge so we could have walked back.
We were back at the lodge after our 4 hour Jeep Tour. We felt a little banged up but it was definitely worth it. We learned stories of all the Navajo Ancestors from different generations, saw amazing petroglyphs, pictographs and ruins. The area is sacred to the Navajo, with still-active residents living in the canyon and dry farming where once the ran deep. And the scenery of the canyon was amazing.
It was interesting to travel in a jeep because you could quickly see how far apart everything was. You might wonder how often people in the other dwelling saw each other, especially when most of their travel was by foot or horse. They got around pretty dang good, using trails called “hand-and-toe” trails, which are also known as Moki Steps or Moqui Steps. These are old vertical paths carved into the rock walls by the Ancestral Puebloans. These steep trails were like the highways for their communities, helping them move through difficult areas like Mesa Verde National Park, Canyon De Chelly and Chaco Canyon
These are two “Toe and Heal Paths we saw in our travels. I guess it’s a thing now to try “finger and toe paths as they say it ” helps the energetic and structural pathways connecting the hands and feet through the body’s nervous system, fascia, or practices like Jin Shin Jyutsu energy flows.
I went back into the Trading post and had to take a picture of this sticker!
Neat pictures and such they had in the post.
It looks just like the one in the picture.
Dogs resting in the outside shade.
It was for sure a great place to stay and be in a National Monument. If your ever in the area, at least take a jeep ride. We left on September 28th in the rain to Winslow, Arizona.
