Sunday dawned bright and beautiful and we checked out of the stifling hot room and went looking for a laundromat so we could start fresh. The sickness had peaked and was ebbing and driving was not uncomfortable. The girls nap or play in the back and I am listening to David Vann’s Caribou Island which takes place on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska and is a frightening portrait of the shallowness of our culture amidst a land I love. Back up we go into the Tonto National Forest and further North into the Navajo Nation looking for…
Canyon de Chelly- Navajo Nation, AZ
The wind blow relentlessly the whole way north throwing a huge curtain of dust over the desolate dessert.
We find the campgrounds in the cotton woods by the river on the outskirts of a Navajo town and are surprised to find it crowded. It’s free but so are most of the campgrounds out here. There is a Green Tortoise Bus chartered by a Charter Middle School from Washington and we camp across from it and join their evening community of skits and songs. I did the dishes and missed the brownies.
The next morning we hit the visitor center, Ambiana and Jakobi earn their badges by picking up garbage and doing a crossword. then we head out and see why all these people including us came out here.
We drive the North Rim on our way to Colorado and stop at 3 viewpoints into the the canyon below. You need a guide to go into any of it other than one trail down because the Navajo still live down there; grow corn and raise horses…and give tours and work for the Park Service.
It is beautiful, made more so by the knowledge that people live below amidst all that beauty
People have been living down there for 2000 years…
We stopped for burritos in Cortez Colorado
Bibi takes her turn at the wheel; we headed up rt 60 over Wolf Creek Pass in the wind, rain and snow and turned North up rt 285 and arrived in Fairplay amidst a small whiteout which made finding Tony & Beth’s more an adventure than I cared for after 7 hours of driving.
Tony & Beth- Fairplay, CO
We spent a nice mellow day at Tony’s. Beth arrived soon after us last night from Florida where she was visiting her sister.
Ambiana loved Tony, they spent the whole day together.
Jakobi loved the dogs
. We made a yummy breakfast and they sent us off with Pizza and we watched their wedding DVD and we talked about Mom and Dad and just enjoyed being together (and not being in the car all day)
It was a quick visit but since Colleen informed me she wants to be back Sunday rather than Tuesday it had to be so we loaded up at 6pm and headed to Kansas.
