Joseph Campbell the famed student of mythology and religion, once called Canyon de Chelly “the most sacred place on Earth.”
Carl Jung the Swiss psychologist added that Canyon de Chelly was the only place he knew outside of the Valley of the Nile that so truly embodied the very essence of antiquity.
It is one of the longest continuously inhabited landscapes of North America preserving ruins of the indigenous tribes that lived in the area-the Ancestral Puebloans (formerly known as Anasazi) to the Navajo. The Monument encompasses the three major canyons- de Chelly, del Muerto, and Monument.
Above-overlooking Antelope House
Above Fortress Rock
Access to the canyon floor is restricted, and visitors are allowed to travel in the canyons only when accompanied by a park ranger or an authorized Navajo guide. In our case riding in the back of one of these propane powered Korean War surplus trucks.
Above entering the wide Chinle Wash into where the canyons branch out.
About 40 Navajo families live in the park and typically in these octagonal “Hogans”
Above White House Ruin.
Spider Rock
Above First Ruin.
