Day 7

Day 7

We got up, went and rode the tram in ABQ.  It was really neat.  We then hiked up to the little house.  Colton had on his cowboy boots.  We were not prepared to hike 3 miles, but wanted to go check out the house.  We didn’t have water and he had boots on, but we made it!  It was beautiful!!  Colton got some nasty blisters, but at least he was working on breaking in those boots!  We got off the tram and ate our picnic in the car on the way to Canyon de Chelly.  OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!  Absolutely breathtaking!  When I came to AZ with Leigh 15 or so years ago, we talked about going there (or she did, because I knew absolutely nothing about anything) but decided it was not in our time frame.  This was not scheduled on our trip either, but it was so worth the extra hour and a half drive!  I will let the pictures speak for themselves.  It was interesting that some Navajo people still live in the canyon.  Instructions within the canyon said to not photo their personal houses, not to take their picture without permission, etc…  Seeing the ruins was incredible and to think that people did that so many hundreds of years ago.  We hiked another 3 miles to get to the bottom of this canyon.  Rod and Colton did a little bit of mountain climbing.  Colton loved it!  He really does love that kind of thing.  He was in his element.  He even said, “I wish my friends could see me doing this!” J    The current Navajo people that lived in that area mainly live in very small, run down trailers.  Pretty sad conditions to live in but surrounded by some of the most incredible scenery I have ever seen.  Maybe they don’t care about what their house looks like because they get to look at such beauty as soon as they walk out the door!  They also still live in little houses that are kind of like teepees.  Rod and I discussed what the "houses" were.  They look from the outside worse than storage buildings in the yards of Lost Plantation.  We were reading in one of the guide books that this was where some of the Navajo people lived!  We could not believe it!!  The book said that many still lived very much like their ancestors!  Very interesting!!!

Link for pictures is the same as Day 6!

And for a note to myself:  we were told about a place called Acoma Pueblo (Sky City).  We couldn’t fit that in this time…. But maybe next time!  Sounded very interesting!