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Trip Report: Canyon De Chelly May 18-20, 2007




Canyon De Chelly- An AMAZING adventure !

Twenty nine Jeeps, over 50 people aged from 1 year old to 73 years old, all ready to make history again on our 2nd Jeep Expedition this year. This was Canyon De Chelly 2007 !

Anticipation and excitement was high as the date drew near. Several of us bought our new M101 trailers to carry gear, others bought CBs or Ham radios and others did some new mods to their Jeeps. All of us were ready for what was billed as the trip of a lifetime, we were not disappointed !

We left in several groups, some Friday others early Saturday. Some left from Phoenix, others from Mesa and others from Kingman and Flagstaff. It didn’t matter what route you took or what day you got there, in the end we were all together, one happy Jeep family in an outdoor setting that is nearly impossible to describe.

Everyone converged on the NPS Visitors Center at Canyon De Chelly where we met our Navajo Guides. After the paperwork for permits was completed, the guides escorted us in groups of 4 or 5 from the VC to our base camp for the 3 days at the Antelope House Ruins. The guide service we contracted was Antelope House Tours (www.canyondechelly.net). The ride approximately 10 miles or so into the canyon was absolutely beautiful and full of history. The guides would point out ancient ruins on the cliffs above, we drove thru the river bed, sandy and moist with many areas that had water flowing or standing. As we continued into the canyon, the wide river bed became a trail of sand, dirt, rocks and combination of all three. Not a challenge for our rigs but fun to drive on for sure. All in all, there were probably 20 or more water crossings of 6 inches or more from the entrance to the base camp.

No one anticipated what we would see when we first laid eyes on our base camp. A big beautiful set of ruins of an ancient stone/adobe structure(s) up against the cliff at nearly ground level to the left. In the middle the towering red rock walls went inward providing a huge area under cover from the elements for dining, campfires or other activities and then a long stretch of red rock walls hundreds of feet high with grassy fields all around.

Everyone staked out a camp site with half of the group on one side of the natural amphitheatre and the rest to the other side. The Chuckwagon kitchen was set up in the amphitheatre next to the stone campfire place. There were actually some facilities there that we were not told about. They had men’s and woman’s out houses that were made from natural stone (and smelled bad), there was a “shower” stall that you could provide your own water, several makeshift tables and logs to sit on around the fire.

Our 1st night we had country style spare ribs, mashed potatoes, corn, rolls and tropical fruit salad for the chuckwagon dinner. The cooks were well organized as was the kitchen and things seemed to go very smoothly. The clean up crew afterwards did a great job and it was time for the campfire and our toasted marshmallows and SMORES !

Again, none of anticipated our entertainment, probably because I was not told there would be entertainment. Our chief guide Adam and his father Ben told Navajo stories that had been passed from generation to generation and treated us to Navajo songs complete with drum and flute. It was truly amazing ! The fire blazed away and people listened intently as the toasted marshmallows. When they had told their stories and sang their songs, they told us they would have more stories and songs for us the next night at the campfire. Life it GOOD ! I had people coming up to me after the campfire wanting to know if we could do this again next year and they were ready to sign up, some said this was the best Jeep trip they had ever been on…….all of this before we even took our 1st trail ride !

Sunday morning we got up around 6am as I got the light breakfast ready and my right hand man coffee maker George was hard at work as usual getting coffee ready for 50 campers. Today we were touring the main Canyon De Chelly all the way back to the famous Spider Rock.

Our groups of 5 started leaving around 8am with the photography group leaving 1st. Don’t let the name photography fool you. Paul and his buddy a professional photographer had the muddiest Jeep all weekend, they were there to play hard too !

My group left last and of course got back last but we didn’t mind. Our guide was Adam Teller, he has been featured on TV programs about Canyon De Chelly, has "famous" Navajo Relatives and tells GREAT stories !

Adam, our guide was absolutely great ! We found out he was related to the author or the book Windtalkers. The actor that played Ben Yazee in the movie was telling his uncles story, the story of the Navajo Code Talkers of WW2 of which he was one. His grandfather was the subject of one of the main characters in an episode or two of “Into the West” and Adam was a consultant for the mini series. He told us much of Navajo history and the history of Canyon De Chelly. We stopped at ruins sites which seemed to be around ever curve and he described each one. This was living history at its best ! Did I mention that we crossed water at least 30 to 40 times on Sunday and for the most part was a 2WD or a 4 high day. Nothing real challenging other than slippery slopes and mud but it was sure fun. We stopped at White House Ruins and learned about the history of this set of dwellings. There were some native merchants there who had lined up to sell Indian jewelry and other items including paintings.

We left White House Ruins for Spider Rock where again Adam gave us more history of the area and even some of the legends. We had lunch in the shade of some of the many trees in the canyons from pine to Russian Olive, to oak, cottonwood and more.

For us, that was the furthest we went into the canyon even though we had driven well over 20 or more miles of trail to get there. We heard later that at least one other groups guide took them several miles further into the canyon. They made their own trail I was told as there were no traveled trails past Spider Rock. Oh well, but we still had a GREAT time !

On the way back we stopped at the “window rock” and Adam took a few of the fit and brave among us up a steep embankment of loose stones and slickrock. The journey looked to be several hundred yards on a good 50 to 60% incline. Not for the faint at heart or anyone not in top shape. Adam who might be close to 50 navigated it with the speed and agility of a mountain goat ! The people that went up said it was awesome but very tiring and even a little scary.

As we got back into our Jeeps to continue back to basecamp, I had asked Adam why a small area was fenced off against the canyon wall. He said that it was a sacred sited and “bad medicine”, the Navajos were terrified to go there. As he continue to explain what happened he told us that many years ago a party of 200 Hopi Indians came the canyon to settle in it. They didn’t know the Navajo were there and over 300 Navajo warriors ambushed them and killed every last one of them. Many of them were killed at this spot and buried there. He pointed out the pictographs that were in red “ink” and explained the red color was due to the paint being made out of human blood mixed with pine sap. They are still there today because the rock they are on is shielded from the elements. We continued on to basecamp past more ruins, beautiful rock formations and scenery and of course more water crossings. Upon arriving at basecamp, Adam promised us a much more gnarly trail the next day with deep mud and several challenges……life is GOOD !

The cooks showed up for the chuckwagon and we proceed to make 60 lbs of chicken on the grills. Carol made 10lbs of her “famous” coleslaw from scratch…….we ran out as people kept coming back for more ! Corn, Bush’s baked beans, rolls and applesauce rounded out the menu. As dinner finished up and the clean up crew were working, everyone started showing up for the campfire festivities.

Ben and Adam told us more stories and legends, played the flute and drum and sang us more songs. I don’t think anyone left early. Again we cooked marshmallows and smores over the camp fire. It was another command performance ! Everyone wanted to hit the trail early on Sunday so for the most part everyone hit the sack, except me and Carol who finished up the clean up and packing things so we didn’t have to spend hours on that on Monday.

Monday morning 5am…..it was light out, people were stirring……George was again making coffee, I wish I had his energy that early. Set up the breakfast stuff again. Since my group was the last to leave, I had some extra time to pack up more stuff while Carol broke down our campsite and re-arranged the Wagoneer. Everyone was anticipating the gnarly trails we were promised and few of us wanted to go home today.

It was time for our group to leave. The anticipation was high and again our group consisted of Brian Harmon, his fiancée Alice and young guest Kaynece; Kristoffer Smith and his girlfriend Aimee; George and Diane Zalman; and me and my long time girlfriend Carol.

Today was our exploration of Canyon Del Meurto. We began with the now familiar water crossings every hundred yards or so it seemed. Lots more beauty and history to see and learn about. Adam told us many stories, legends and Navajo customs. After 10 or so miles we ended up at Mummy Cave. A most impressive and huge set of ruins several hundred feet up the cliff and learned more history and legend of it. He also pointed out more pictographs that were done in human blood ! Seems to be a trend going on here J.

He said that this was the end of the easy trail and the end of the trail for any other guide service but for our group he had a treat. The gnarly trail, the bottomless pit and more.

He opened up a gate and said that everyone else’s tours ended at this gate. We all proceeded thru and Adam closed the gate behind us. The 1st obstacle looked pretty formidable to me with my 5000lb tank and no lockers. It was a gully that had a pretty good angle going in and out with a mud shelf that looked to be about 30” high. As I figured, my front bumper and winch mount was eating dirt and grass as I went down in and started my way out. I hit the shelf with some degree of aggression twice and lifted my front tires off the ground. I decided the shelf and the rest of the way out was too much without lockers so I decided to try the steep embankment…….that worked on the 1st try ! Ok, now we were having fun. More steep in and outs, ruts, more mud and water and then the bottomless bog…..well it wasn’t bottomless but when I saw Brian hit it with his XJ and ARBs front and rear and estimated the depth to be nearly 3 feet, I took the bypass…….still had to go thru a foot or two of water and mud but not that long 30 yard stretch of 2 to 3 foot stuff. But the bypass had its quirks too in that the decent back to the trail was a sharp turn back to the left and a 60 degree incline at best. I got down it and wondered if I would be able to get back up….time would tell. Still more water and mud and we finally met two of our other groups at a large meadow near the end of the canyon. One group went the whole way to the end. We sat there and made lunch and listened to more history from Adam.

Well it was now time to head back. Remember that steep incline on that bog bypass, well I made it up just fine the 1st time with lots of pedal. Kristoffer made it up too. Brian and George with their ARBs and Ox lockers went thru the bog again. Brian was set up to take pictures of me and Kris coming out of the water. Carol was feeling a little devilish to me and said “hey, see if you can get him a little wet”. So I gave it some gas, got Brian soaked from the waste down but I forgot about that 1 foot shelf coming out………….bang ! Up in the air I went….again airborne…….Brian was excited and said I got you in the air on my camera….what a good sport. With that, Adam started giving our group Navajo names. He said our group would be the Copper Wagoneer clan after my beast. Since Brian got soaked by my stunt he called him “he who wets pants”, George who was stopping as much as me to take pictures was named “Turtle who takes pictures”, Kristoffer was named “he who rides the white pony” after his white XJ and I got the name “he who flies Wagoneers” because of my going airborne several times.

Well a few more stops and some more history and back to basecamp to finish packing up and the long trip home. We were the last group back, everyone left before us and took most of the trash and 3 of the coolers which was good as we were pretty well packed and out of room. We were out of the canyon and back to the vistors center around 3pm. We ran into Scrambler Jim and some of his group. Jim was the only one to suffer major carnage this trip. His fan was introduced to his radiator and made a nasty circle deep into the cooling tubes. One of the guys was staying the night there so Jim got reservations at the same hotel and was going to have AAA tow him to Phoenix the next day. The rest of us started the long drive home with nearly 100% of us saying this was the best off-road trip ever! We planned on coming back again in the fall of 2008 for a different perspective of the canyons beauty with the changing of the leaf colors..

Vist the Photo Gallery for plenty of pictures of this and other Expeditions




 

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