USA Guide
The Southwest
Canyon de Chelly National Monument
Twin sandstone walls emerge abruptly from the desert floor, climbing at a phenomenal rate to become the awesome thousand-foot cliffs of Canyon de Chelly National Monument. Between these sheer sides, the meandering course of the Chinle Wash can be discerned by its fringe of cottonwoods as it winds through grasslands and planted fields. Here and there a Navajo hogan stands in a grove of fruit trees, a straggle of sheep is penned in by a crude wooden fence, or ponies drink at the water's edge. And everywhere, perched above the valley on ledges in the canyon walls and dwarfed by the towering cliffs, are the long-abandoned adobe dwellings of the Ancestral Puebloans.
Two main canyons branch apart a few miles upstream: Canyon de Chelly (pronounced de shay) to the south and Canyon del Muerto to the north. Each twists and turns in all directions, scattered with vast rock monoliths, while several smaller canyons break away.
Canyon de Chelly is a magnificent place, on a par with the best of the Southwest's national parks. Its relative lack of fame owes much to the continuing presence of the Navajo, for whom the canyon retains enormous symbolic significance. Visitors are largely restricted to peering into the canyon from above, from overlooks along the two "rim drives." There's no road in, and, apart from one short trail, you can only enter the canyons with a Navajo guide. Each of the two "rim drives" offers a succession of spectacular overlooks; allow two to three hours for each forty-mile round-trip.