Saturday June 7, 2014

 

Non-Travel Day

 

This morning after a leisurely breakfast we traveled 104 miles south and into AZ to the “Navajo National Monument”, a park run by the National Park Service . In this park is another example of the cliff dwellings constructed by the Ancestral Puebloan people, the ruins here are some of the best preserved structures; however they are only accessible after a long hike into the canyon guided by a ranger twice daily. We were not fortunate enough to arrive early enough in the day to take one of the guided tours, so we had to settle for a view of the buildings from an overlook across the canyon. To reach the overlook we had to hike .75 miles downhill to the overlook, and then return .75 uphill to the visitor’s center. It was a considerable distance across the canyon to the ruins and we could not make out any details of the buildings. In retrospect it was really not worth the long drive to the park. In using US Rt. 163 to and from the “Navajo National Monument” we passed through the Navajo Indian Reservation and the Monument Valley, and it was this part of the drive that made the entire trip worthwhile. It was
here that we saw majestic spires of red rock rising from the flat mesa floor to tremendous heights with unbelievable shapes and sizes.