Today we visited Canyon de Chelly. Grace had really wanted to go to the Four Corners and stand where the four states meet, so we detoured a few hours to go there. You hate to say something is in the middle of nowhere, because it is generally somewhere to somebody, but as much as something could be in nowhere this pretty much is. Above is a picture of the two girls at the Four Corners.
After the Four Corners, we went on to Canyon de Chelly where we stayed the night at the Thunderbird Lodge. We really liked the Thunderbird. You have a couple of classes of National Park Lodges: the fancy ones like Ahwanee in Yosemite and El Tovar in the Grand Canyon and then the more basic ones; Thunderbird fits into the more basic category. It's a moderately-priced Indian-themed motel located on the site of an old Navajo trading post. There is a really good cafeteria with American and Navajo specialities, a gift shop and guide service. The national park is administered by the National Park Service and the Thunderbird Lodge is run by the Navajo.
We had heard so much about Canyon de Chelly, and are really glad we were able to come here and see it. Unfortunately, because of the heat, we only stayed a day and didn't do a tour of the canyon itself, which is supposed to be the high point of a visit. Because this is an important site to the Navajo, and because people are living on the canyon floor, you can only go into the canyon with a licensed Navajo guide. The guide services also looked pretty affordable.
We had to satisfy ourselves with a one day visit and an auto-tour around the canyon rim though. We're heading up to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon today, which at 8,000 feet should be much cooler than where we are now.
Above is a picture of the Thunderbird Lodge
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