Our stay in the Navajo Nation revolved around three daytrips including Mystery Valley, Canyon De Chelly National Monument, and the Monument Valley Scenic Driving Tour. The first two were with Navajo tour guides in their own vehicles. The third was just the two of us and was a bit of a trial for our Jeep. The guided tours were a “must” for several reasons:
- You can only go into those areas with a genuine Navajo guide
- The terrain you climb in your vehicles is death-defying
- The guides know the history, current events, and environment
- They tell you about their life, their challenges, their relationships, and how they live
The Navajo Nation is enormous and includes more than 27,000 square miles of high-altitude land. It’s full of rugged beauty, Anasazi ruins, and pictographs. The Anasazi, AKA Ancestral Puebloans, lived there for over 1000 years until moving on circa 1300. They built and dwelled in cliff dwellings and lived off the land. They likely left Monument Valley due to prolonged drought and scattered to other tribes in the south and in the east. The Navajo, or the Diné in Navajo, arrived in the 14th to 15th centuries and have been there ever since.
They run their own government which is structured with executive, legislative, and judicial branches much like the rest of the U.S. However, their society is highly community-oriented and there are some dramatic differences in housing, culture, occupations, and the way they treat their land. Nearly everyone speaks Navajo and English. Most people rely on tourism to make a living and many struggle when it’s not in full swing. They are a proud people and take pride in sharing their lives and customs with you.
Mystery Valley. This is in the southern part of Monument Valley and is more off-the-beaten track than the area where the bulk of the monuments are. We only saw one other vehicle in the valley during our three hours there. Today, Mystery Valley is empty of development and people except for sheep and cattle grazing. It has a rugged beauty and serenity to it.
Canyon De Chelly. The Canyon is located right in the middle of the Navajo Nation 95 miles south of the main monuments. People lived in the canyon for 4000 years before the Navajo arrived. Today, there are still many people living, farming, and raising livestock in the canyon. The views from the top of the Canyon are breathtaking. The width, depth, and rock formations are something to behold. Descending some 600 feet into the Canyon and driving along Chinle Creek is like entering into another time and place.
Monument Valley Scenic Drive. The drive is through 17 miles of rugged dirt and rock roads around massive rock structures and scenic overlooks that are uniquely Monument Valley. As you make your way through the vistas, you almost can’t take enough pictures. After a few miles in, there’s a trading past where they make some of the standard Navajo foods. One we really enjoyed was “Frybread” which is a bit like naan bread. It invented back the 1800’s when the US government forced relocation of the Diné and rationed out flour, lard, and salt. It is still a staple of the Navajo diet. We had it with some garlic and rosemary and it was delish.
