Monument Valley, Gallup, and Chaco
Canyon…
We’ve done
and seen so much this past week that I don’t know where to start…I guess the
beginning would be a good place!
We left Moab just before the snow hit there so were lucky to dodge that little bit of winter. Heading south into Monument Valley was really an interesting drive. The road was quite a bumpy roller coaster. I was surprised it was not kept up better but it might have something to do with the fact that it is all on the Navajo reservation. We
stopped at a roadside to take pictures and of course there were some vendors
there selling jewelry. I talked with one
fellow and he said they don’t like to be called Navajo but rather “Dinѐ” which
means “The People”. They now mark their
pottery and other artwork that way as well. It’s so interesting to learn about their
culture and history…we’ve learned a lot since we’ve been here. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking. My pictures really don’t do it justice
however. I’m sure you’ve seen some of
these pictures either in western movies or in advertisements for the
southwest. Pretty amazing to see them in
person.
Our RV park is right on Route 66 and is quite a nice place. There are metal sculptures at the entrance
(picture on previous page), about 100 sites and a nice little dog park. Oso managed to pose for me in front of the
dog park!
We drove out to
Zuni Pueblo and spent the day there wandering through the trading posts and
taking pictures. We had to buy a pass to
take pictures…$10 but it was worth it. Zuni’s
make beautiful inlaid jewelry and bright, colourful Katchinas (wood 
carvings of
warriors or medicine men, etc.) The Hopi
Katchinas are the most highly prized as every bit of them is intricately carved
and painted beautifully. Anyway, back to Zuni…the ovens that the
people make their pottery in and cook their food in are pretty amazing. There may be a row of four or five of them in
someone’s back yard. We talked with one
fellow in a shop who said that his family cooked ribs very slowly in the clay oven
that past weekend and they were fall-off-the-bone delicious.
There are many street vendors in the Pueblo as well as Trading Posts where people can look at the
goods for sale. The Trading Posts really
mark the prices up for the tourists. I
paid $15 for an opal inlaid ring from a vendor and saw exact same ring in a
trading post for $110.
After we left Zuni we went south toward El Morro historic site. For hundreds of years, people traveling through the desert stopped here because of a small lake that traps run-off from rainstorms. Some of these travellers have carved their names into the rock cliffs and so the site is called Inscription Rock. The inscriptions are mostly from Spanish soldiers or travellers in the 1700’s and 1800’s. There are also petroglyphs here and a Zuni ruin. The Zuni’s at that time must have been tiny people because the houses are small and the doorways only about two feet tall. The ruin is on the very top of the site…about 500 feet above the desert floor. There were over 150 stairs carved into the mountainside and much of the pathway was steep rock face. We managed, with a bit of huffing and puffing, to make it to the top. It was well worth it! It was a lot of hiking and sore feet that night, but pretty amazing to see.
The next day we drove out to Chaco Canyon. It is about an hour and a half from Gallup,
across the Continental Divide. (You might
remember me telling you about the people riding their bikes from Banff to
Mexico…they would have come through this area on their trip south). It is about 6500 in elevation here.
Chaco Canyon was amazing. The road off the highway was 30 miles of dirt with a dozen or more cattle crossings so going was slow but well worth it. Chaco Canyon was inhabited between 1000 AD and 1300 AD. During that time the people built some amazing structures. The walls on these buildings are sometimes two feet thick and all made of stacked rock. Some of the structures are three and four stories tall and held 80 or 90 different rooms. Big round gathering rooms called Kivas are where the people
We left Moab just before the snow hit there so were lucky to dodge that little bit of winter. Heading south into Monument Valley was really an interesting drive. The road was quite a bumpy roller coaster. I was surprised it was not kept up better but it might have something to do with the fact that it is all on the Navajo reservation. We
stopped at a roadside to take pictures and of course there were some vendors
there selling jewelry. I talked with one
fellow and he said they don’t like to be called Navajo but rather “Dinѐ” which
means “The People”. They now mark their
pottery and other artwork that way as well. It’s so interesting to learn about their
culture and history…we’ve learned a lot since we’ve been here. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking. My pictures really don’t do it justice
however. I’m sure you’ve seen some of
these pictures either in western movies or in advertisements for the
southwest. Pretty amazing to see them in
person.
Our weather
has been cool and a bit cloudy. We arrived
in Gallup and had a skiff of snow that night.
Everyone was excited about it as it’s not very often they do get
snow. One lady said they haven’t had
snow in three years.
Gallup is an interesting town. It’s not as big as I thought it might be but
is rich in native culture. There are a
number of murals throughout the town and it is fun to wander through and see
them all. There are trading posts all over the place selling Native arts and
crafts. I’ve learned to recognize Navajo
pottery and blankets and know the difference between them and the Zuni or Hopi
arts. Navajo potters cut designs into
their pots with each row of designs meaning something special. The blankets are beautiful but way out of my
price range. A 45”x60” blanket would run
a couple thousand dollars in one of the trading posts. I hope the woman who made it earned at least
half of that but I’m suspicious she may not have. I picked up one that turned out to be from the
1950’s…the price tag said $38,000! The blankets
are getting more and more expensive because fewer and fewer of the young people
are interested in making them. It could
take six months to make one blanket and I guess they are not that patient.
Our RV park is right on Route 66 and is quite a nice place. There are metal sculptures at the entrance
(picture on previous page), about 100 sites and a nice little dog park. Oso managed to pose for me in front of the
dog park!We drove out to
Zuni Pueblo and spent the day there wandering through the trading posts and
taking pictures. We had to buy a pass to
take pictures…$10 but it was worth it. Zuni’s
make beautiful inlaid jewelry and bright, colourful Katchinas (wood carvings of
warriors or medicine men, etc.) The Hopi
Katchinas are the most highly prized as every bit of them is intricately carved
and painted beautifully. Anyway, back to Zuni…the ovens that the
people make their pottery in and cook their food in are pretty amazing. There may be a row of four or five of them in
someone’s back yard. We talked with one
fellow in a shop who said that his family cooked ribs very slowly in the clay oven
that past weekend and they were fall-off-the-bone delicious.
There are many street vendors in the Pueblo as well as Trading Posts where people can look at the
goods for sale. The Trading Posts really
mark the prices up for the tourists. I
paid $15 for an opal inlaid ring from a vendor and saw exact same ring in a
trading post for $110.After we left Zuni we went south toward El Morro historic site. For hundreds of years, people traveling through the desert stopped here because of a small lake that traps run-off from rainstorms. Some of these travellers have carved their names into the rock cliffs and so the site is called Inscription Rock. The inscriptions are mostly from Spanish soldiers or travellers in the 1700’s and 1800’s. There are also petroglyphs here and a Zuni ruin. The Zuni’s at that time must have been tiny people because the houses are small and the doorways only about two feet tall. The ruin is on the very top of the site…about 500 feet above the desert floor. There were over 150 stairs carved into the mountainside and much of the pathway was steep rock face. We managed, with a bit of huffing and puffing, to make it to the top. It was well worth it! It was a lot of hiking and sore feet that night, but pretty amazing to see.The next day we drove out to Chaco Canyon. It is about an hour and a half from Gallup,
across the Continental Divide. (You might
remember me telling you about the people riding their bikes from Banff to
Mexico…they would have come through this area on their trip south). It is about 6500 in elevation here.Chaco Canyon was amazing. The road off the highway was 30 miles of dirt with a dozen or more cattle crossings so going was slow but well worth it. Chaco Canyon was inhabited between 1000 AD and 1300 AD. During that time the people built some amazing structures. The walls on these buildings are sometimes two feet thick and all made of stacked rock. Some of the structures are three and four stories tall and held 80 or 90 different rooms. Big round gathering rooms called Kivas are where the people
went for
ceremonies, and did their cooking, etc. Large
open areas called Plazas were simply
places for people to meet and do their daily chores. The rooms they lived in were tiny and you may
have needed to crawl through several houses to get to yours if it happened to
be at the back of the village.
The trail guide shows roughly how the “villages”
were structured. This one was one of the
smaller ones with roughly 70 rooms that each housed a family. Some of the bigger structures held several
hundred rooms/families Chaco Canyon was
also a trading area. Native people came
from all corners of New Mexico and Arizona to trade here. A very, very
interesting spot
We found some pot shards along the trail…my Archaeologist daughter would be
disgusted with me if I kept them so I left them on the rock for others to
admire.
This blog has turned out to be quite long, but there was so much to tell
and show you. Thanks for hanging in
there with me. We’re heading further
south toward Tucson now and will probably settle there till the new year. Will definitely keep you posted!
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