Dave & Dru Navajo National Monument
Navajo National Monument was the first attraction we visited on our trip. We drove from San Diego to St. George, UT, and then across the southern edge of Utah down into Page, AZ, where we spent our first night. The next day we continued on to Navajo National Monument in northern AZ, suffering massive time zone confusion in the process. You see, driving from CA to UT, one loses an hour since UT is on mountain time. But when you go back into AZ, you gain an hour since AZ is not on DST. But when you go onto the Navajo Indian Reservation, you lose that hour again, because they are on DST. You got it? In spite of the confusion, we managed to present ourselves at the ranger station at 10:00am just in time for Ranger Bruce's briefing on the hike down into the canyon. Ranger Bruce is the supervisor at the monument, so we knew we were in good hands. We were dutifully equipped, complete with backpack water bottles and snacks galore to give us energy on the trip. The ranger-led hike was classified as strenuous. No problem, we can handle that. Ranger Bruce agreed, little did he know! Actually, it was little did we know. We didn't fully comprehend the effects of starting at 6700 feet, hiking down 1000 feet, 2.5 miles each way. Below left is Ranger Bruce as he prepares us for the trek. This was the only site where we had to remain together as we hiked, so self pacing is not an option. (No doubt that was a policy Ranger Bruce regretted as he had to linger 45 minutes or so to escort us out.) Below right you see where we were headed: the ruins were just around the corner at the lower left edge of this magnificent clift.
There they are, the ruins right before us in the left picture below. No tour bus this time, because the only way you can see these puppies is to hike down in and out. No buses, no mules, no helicopters, no nothing, except boots and walking. In the right picture is a closer view looking across the ruins from the right to the left.
Below left is a closer looks at the clustered ruins. The view on the right peers into the ruins of a home that probably housed a family of 4-6.
As we hiked back out, during one of the many rest stops, I snapped the lower left picture of a mountain on the other side of the canyon. Oh yes, lest you think there were no interesting trees at the Navajo National Monument, feast your eyes on the specimen at lower right. Life is good. Well, life may be good, but that little hike flat out right wore us out. A heck of a way to begin a two week vacation. It definitely caused us to throttle back for the next few days, especially until we became more acclimated to the high altitude.
Go to Zion, Bryce, Canyonlands, Natural Bridges & Hovenweep, Canyon de Chelly, or Monument Valley
Go to the index for our Southern Utah travels
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