Karen and Tom Wanderings

From the Hopi Reservation, we headed (with keys firmly in hand) to Canyon de Chelly in the surrounding, and much larger Navajo Nation.  This vast canyon was the cultural center of the Navajo, and their famous last holdout as the Native tribes in the West were being cleared out for white settlers.  Arriving in the afternoon, we drove along both the north and south rims, and hiked to the White House down in the canyon ... the only place in the canyon that you can visit without a Native guide.  In the morning, we did a driving tour into the canyon with a guide for 4ish hours, and even then, didn't get very far into the canyon.   We again had an excellent Native guide (Reggie) who gave us lots of good insights into the history, culture and religious significance of some of the features.  Interestingly, the many cliff dwellings located in the canyon were constructed by the Ancient Puebloans who occupied the canyon for several thousand years before leaving (for u...

After a rainy morning checking out petrified wood, we aimed north towards the Hopi reservation and, thankfully, towards sunny skies.  That area of Arizona is very sparsely populated, and much of the several-hour drive was on flat, 2-lane, straight roads.  But big sky!! Our main activity in the reservation was visiting Blue Canyon, which we learned of through a photographer's blog.  To visit the canyon, a native guide is required... and ours (Micah Loma'omvaya) was awesome.  He is likely one of the last religious leaders, since there are no longer enough of the various leaders required for formal "ordination" ceremonies.  It's pretty complicated, but the take-away is that the culture, sadly, seems to be fading away.  But, Micah was able to give us insight into the tribe's history and culture, as well as the religious significance of the various features within the canyon (most of which we've pathetically forgotten).  And our late afternoon timing gave u...

With our Wave adventure complete, we decided we'd done 'bout everything we wanted to in the Page/Kanab area.  So, a day ahead of schedule, we headed off towards new horizons.  With this extra day, we added Petrified Forest National Park as our bonus stop.  We arrived in the evening and caught sunset in the Painted Desert portion of the park.  Quite beautiful (and windy)!  The following morning, the rains finally found us. But, being from Seattle, we donned the rain gear and headed on a couple of short hikes.  Pretty fascinating colors in the petrified wood.  And the Blue Mesa had some interesting topography.  All in all, not a must see, but it was a relaxing way to spend a couple of half days. Painted Desert Painted Desert Painted Desert Petrified Log Mulit-hued log Blue Mesa Blue Mesa Blue Mesa More Photos    

The Wave is located in an area immediately south and west of Wire Pass and Buckskin Gulch known as Coyote Buttes.  For permitting purposes, BLM divides the area into north and south sections.  The "Wave" permits are actually for the entire North Coyote Buttes area.  On a previous visit to Kanab, we missed out on a North permit at the in-person lottery draw, and settled for a South permit and a guided 4wd tour of some super interesting areas.     With much anticipation, we drove to the Wire Pass trailhead in the wee hours of the morning to get an early start on the trail to beat the heat and crowds.  The approach hike is about 2.5 miles across open desert and slickrock (i.e., no real trails, just general routes), and we only saw a couple of small groups.  We excitedly arrived at The Wave formation, but quickly realized that a pool, of unknown depth, blocked our way into it.  Removing our boots and carefully wading through the edge of the pool ...