Navajos, Nature and Nearly no bed for the night

First, I’m writing this Friday night in my motel room, but I won’t be able to post this until tomorrow – no Internet here. More about my lodging later.

Started out at the Best Western in Gallup and immediately hit the road with my eyes set on Navajo Nation. The Navajo reservation is the largest in the country and spans parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. (About one fourth the size of Arizona and one seventh the size of Sweden.)

Three interesting tidbits about the Navajo:

- They don’t call themselves Navajo, they are Diné. Navajo is a word other tribes used to describe them.

- Only women own property

- They observe Daylight Saving Time, which causes confusion since the rest of Arizona does not. (To make matters worse, the Hopi reservation, which is fully contained inside the Navajo reservation, does not observe Daylight Saving Time.)

I quickly disposed of Window Rock (capital of Navajo Nation) and the Hubbell Trading Post – neither very interesting – and moved onto the first great experience of the day: Canyon de Chelly National Monument. Much smaller than the Grand Canyon, but in some ways a more interesting experience – at least from the rim. The Grand Canyon is so big, so wide and so deep, and the inner canyon is so far down and away that it’s hard to see much of what’s going on down there. Here, the canyon walls go straight down to the bottom of the canyon (about 1,000 feet / 300 m) where you can see the river, trees and Indian ruins.

My second major stop was Monument Valley, and what an incredible place that is! Impossible to describe and pictures don’t do it justice. All I can say is this: go, go, go, and do take the 2.5 hour guided tour.

It’s expensive ($70) but well worth the price. You get to sit in an open air 4WD vehicle (extended jeep or converted pickup truck) instead of driving your own car on a pretty miserable unpaved road (I started on my own, but found myself completely focused on the road instead of the scenery so I turned around and decided to splurge) and the Navajo guide takes you to a number of places you’re not allowed to go on your own (about 1 hour of the total tour). And, your guide may wear a T-shirt saying “How do you like your pussy?” I’m not kidding. It also had a lot of cats on it.

Also, I recommend visiting at the beginning or the end of the day when the light is best. By the time the tour was done, it was getting dark and I was pretty spent after much of the day out in the sun. I had originally planned to drive to Page, AZ, but was too tired for a 2.5 hour drive in the dark so I started looking for a motel. After having tried three different ones that were either pricier than I wanted (Holiday Inn $160…) or sold out, I started getting a bit desperate. My Navigation system said that there was one more motel ahead of me, and then nothing before Page, so I pretty much had to stay there as long as they had room. Well, let’s just say it was a $29-motel that charged $106 for a room. My room was in what they described as a “villa”, which turned out to be a something that looked like mobile home with paper-thin walls, a tiny room (the bed took up most of it) and a shower that could best be described as dripping, rather than flowing.

But, it had a functioning (albeit small) TV and I was able to watch the 4th quarter of the Celtics – Pistons game and see my Celtics advance to the NBA finals for the first time in 21 years. Life is good.