For someone who loves both geology and Native culture one of the most memorable and spectacular landscapes we visited in Arizona was Canyon De Shelley (pronounced “canyon de shay”). The Canyon is a National Monument that lies within the Navaho Reservation in the northeast corner of Arizona. The closest local town in Chinle, and that is where we stayed while in the area. There were a lot of Native vendors selling their wares at the Visitor Center, and my wife bought herself a ring from a silversmith who was working there.
Evening was falling when we drove up the North Rim Road and at the first overlook, there was a poor Native woman and a boy trying to sell some geodes and crystals. I bought two of the geodes and her 35 year old son Roy came along. I thought it was another one of those pay for a guide situations, but it wasn’t. I talked to Roy for a long time. His parents couldn’t speak English.
He told me how some of his leaders wanted to have a nuclear storage dump and generator on the reserve. He was against it, and I told him he was right not to harm their land. I handed him the last dollar for the geodes, which made his mother looked distressed, when it looked like he was not going to hand the money over to her, but he did.
He told me of how his grandparents had hidden in the valley from the Americans who were taking Indians to Fort Defiance. Roy also said they live down in the valley during the summer, and now the Park Service is trying to take that land away.
We walked to the canyon rim, and were amazed at the sight. It was a spectacular sandstone canyon with a flat valley bottom, but the light was bad so I didn’t take any photos. The old couple and Roy were packing up their things when we returned to the car, which was the only vehicle in sight, so I offered to drive them home, which we did.
The next day we saw some of the canyon’s more dramatic scenery which I will show you tomorrow.
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