Grace's Fall Break - Trip to Chaco Canyon - Days 3-6

Chaco Culture was the main stop on our trip.

On the first day we went to Una Vida. It is one of the first great houses built in Chaco Canyon. Now it looks small, but in the 900's it was very big!!

On the second day, I hiked 8 miles to see the Supernova pictograph. 

On the way there was a Petroglyph side trail.  We took it and here are some of the Petroglyphs. 

The square is a Kachina.  I think this is really cool!!

Under the Supernova Pictograph there was a petroglyph of Halley's comet. The hike was long, and my mom got lots of blisters on her feet to prove it.

On the bluff above there were ruins called Penasco Blanco.

On the third day, we went to Hungo Pavi, Chetro Ketl, Pueblo Bonito, Pueblo de Arroyo, and Casa Rinconada. 

Pueblo Bonito

Pueblo Bonito is the town square. It is Huge!!! It was first to be built and the last to be completed. On January 22, 1941 a rock face fell on an 8th of Pueblo Bonito. Here are some pictures of Pueblo Bonito!

 This is a drawing of the different stages of building at Pueblo Bonito.

 The famous curving doors of Pueblo Bonito.  Awesome!!

 This is the original wood ceiling beams in this one room of Pueblo Bonito.  The room has original plaster, but the park service plastered over it, because people were vandalizing it.  There was a lot of that kind of stuff here.  It made me sad.

This is a rare corner door.

Chetro Ketl

Here is the "Great Wall" at Chetro Ketl. Which is another great house about 1/2 mile from Pueblo Bonito.

These are original mosaics that are blocked off, but a nice park service ranger came by and opened the door to the room, so we could get a better look.  He told us there were several other examples in the park, but they have closed them off to visitors for safe keeping.

Casa Rinconada

My favorite of all the ruins!!!

Casa Rinconada is a Great Kiva. On the summer solstice a light shines on a niche on the wall. A Great Kiva is a ceremony room sort of like a church.

Pueblo de Arroyo

 This a "tri-wall" or triple walled kiva.  They are rare and only a dozen have been found in the four corners area.  This is the only one at Chaco.

 These mealing bins have metate's in them.  The women would sit down with feet against the wall and knees against the mealing bin and grind corn. 

Chacoan Stairway

Chacoan stairways were carved into rocks.  They have found many stairways around Chaco Canyon.

Chaco was Awesome!!!

More to come - Aztec Ruins, Four corners, Canyon de Chelly and Hubble Trading Post

Grace's Fall Break - Trip to Chaco Canyon - Days 1 - 3

Part 1: Trip data  

Destination: El Malpais National Conservation Area and Monument & El Morro National Monument

Traveled with: Mom and Dad

Traveled from: Tucson

Maps: Arizona and New Mexico Gazetteer, GPS,  Maps my Dad printed from internet

During Fall Break I went to El Morro National Monument, El Malpais National Monument, Chaco Canyon National Historical Park, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Aztec Ruins, and Hubble Trading Post.  I also went to one place that wasn't part of the National Park system, Four Corners Tribal Park Monument.

I became a Junior Ranger at all of the National Park places.  That is SIX Junior Rangers badges. 

The first park I got a Junior Ranger badge at was El Morro which means in Spanish a butte or rock.  At El Morro, you take a trail called, Inscription Trail.  

On the trail there is a pool.  We saw cliff swallows nests which are made of mud.  

There are tons of inscriptions and petroglyphs.  Inscriptions are carvings in rocks that are done by the Spanish and English explorers. Petroglyphs are carvings done by Ancient Indians.  Graffiti is modern day inscriptions and is illegal. 

The first English inscription was inscribed by a man named Lt. JHSimpson who copied down all the inscriptions by hand.  He was an amazing artist, because his drawings were as good as any photograph today. At the time the inscriptions where in Spanish.  The funny thing is  his inscription read: 

Lt. JHSimpson, USA u RH.Kern Artist 

visited and copied these insciptions, 

September 18th 1849.  

  

So, the first English inscription has a miss spelled word.  

To bad he didn't have a spell checker.

At El Morro it was interesting to see the inscriptions.

El Malpais is a lava flow.  There are five layers of flow.  The layers are McCartys Crater, Bandera Crater, Cerro Hoya, El Calderon, Twin Craters. 

We drove through "The Narrows."  It is where the lava just stops right next to the cliffs.  There is only enough room for a two lane road, between the flow and cliffs.

We stopped at La Ventana Arch.

It was really cool.  They made a big deal out of the me becoming a Junior Ranger.  

Both rangers came outside and one swore me in.  It was AWESOME!!!

That's all for now. 

Stay tuned for Chaco Canyon!!!

Monument Valley Backcountry By: Izabella, Grace & Sydney

This is the first blog post we have all written together.  So, each Diva is writing in a different color.  Grace is in Blue, Izabella is in Orange, and Sydney is in Pink. What we write together is in Green.

Trip Data

Date: Aug. 27-19, 2010 3days Friday,Saturday,and Sunday

Location: Monument Valley, AZ/UT

Divas: Grace, Sydney, and Izabella

Diva Dogs: Jäger

Vehicles: 2 Dormobiles, 1 LR3, 4 Discos, and 1 Range Rover

Weather: Windy, Just Right, Cloudy, Warm, 72 º F

Activities: Uno, 4wd, playing in the hogans, running with the horses, playing with the dogs, running on the sand dunes.

Meals: Marsh-mellows, Izabella and Sydney:  Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo, Enchilada casserole.  All were in the dutch oven.  Grace:  Chili Mac, and Tacos

Animals Spotted/Animal Tracks:  Horses, Beetles, Lizards, Dogs

A Little History on The Navajo

The Navajo Nation is the biggest reservation in the United States.  It is 16,000,000 acres and mostly in Arizona.

The Navajo People call themselves "Dine" (Di-nay), which means "The People".  The Navajo came to the southwest around 1400 AD.  They may have originally came across the land bridge that used to exist between Russia and Alaska, around 1200 BC.  When they reached the southwest the Anasazi  or Pueblo people taught them to farm corn and beans.  Spanish settlers later brought sheep (around the 1600's).  They got wool from the sheep to make clothing, blankets and rugs.  They also used the meat from the lamb and mutton.  They used all the products from the sheep to trade for other goods.  Today they still harvest corn and beans, and raise sheep.  At the Cameron Trading Post you can see a woman making a very large rug on a loom.  We talked to the lady, she said it takes one year to make one large rug. 

 Our Wonderful Guides

These are our guides.  They were awesome!  We could not have asked for more. Valerie Dee grew up in Monument Valley and she arranged for us to stay at her family's place in Monument Valley at the Hub.  Her Mom and Dad were our guides around the valley.
 
Day 1

The trip was at least 9 hours from Tucson, AZ to Monument Valley. As we were driving, the desert started to change.  It started by getting sandier, rockier(sandstone), then the color of our surroundings became a deep red rust color.  There was lots and lots of red sand on the ground.  There were a few trees and bushes scattered about, and finally we saw our first Monument it was sooooo pretty!!!!  

From a distance the buttes and monuments looked purple but as we got closer they turned out to be red, orange, brown, and rust!  When we first got there we were still on the main loop when we stopped to get some awesome pictures of the divas at the 2 mittens!  Like always if Jäger is in a picture it is mighty adorable! 

The Three Sisters - This is on the way to the campsite.

The Campsite was at the Hub.  

We had two female hogans, one male hogan, and a sweatlodge and spectacular views on all side!

When we first got to the campground we saw 3 Hogans 2 large ones and 1 medium and a tiny one!!!  We were all going to sleep in the largest one, the one in the middle, but we were all to tired, so we decided to sleep with our parents instead.

 

 

 

 

This is our group from the AZLRO

Hogans are made of wood, bark and mud.  The hogan has log wood walls and a dome ceiling.  They cover the wood with mud.  It makes the Hogan look round.  The hogans have dirt floors, and only one room.  The door to the Hogan face east, so they can get sun in the morning, and help them wake up.  There is a woman's hogan and a man's hogan.  The woman's Hogan is bigger and more decorated then the man's hogan.  

Female Hogan

Male Hogan

Sweatlodge or Dog Hogan?

Here we are playing at the campsite!

Three Divas on the Dormobile at camp

Izabella and Sydney's Pop-up camper at camp

Sydney and Grace went to bed earlier than I did so they did not get a chance to see the moon come out.  I had to stay up late so that I could work on my moon journal, how cool is that?!!!  The moon looked as if it was going to be huge from the size of it's glare, but it was just normal size.  We had marshmallows but no skewers so I took a fork and knife and put them together with a hair tie.  I broke off the two middle spikes,too.  The marshmallows were delicious!!!!  Then I had finished up about 4-5 marshmallows.   It was time for bed!!!

 A  Little Geology

Monument Valley used to be a 100 foot piece of sandstone.  Most of the sandstone has eroded away but some still stands, and is beautiful.

An arch is formed in four steps:

   1. It starts as a sandstone block.

   2. Then some of  the stone erodes away from rain.

   3. The wind blows the rock.

   4. The wind breaks the rock and you have a arch.

Monument Valley is great for this because there is a lot of wind.

Day 2

In the morning we saw the free roaming horses. They were so close that they could hear us whistle. When we whistled they perked up their heads.

 After we saw the horses, the rover divas went to the middle Hogan and played UNO for a little while. Then all of a sudden in the middle of our game my mom called me out to  see the horses, again. They were so close to our campsite.  I almost got to pet the foal, but didn't since he  was too mouthy like Jäger. The mother was a dark brown with a black mane and tail; the father(stallion)was white with a white mane and tail.  His mane and tail were actually  orange because of the red dirt in monument valley. The foal was a red roan (a red/orange color)with a orange mane and tail. They were the perfect family!!!!! We finished up our UNO game quickly and then we set off with the group to go on a 4wd trip to see more of Monument Valley.  

  

 On day 2 we bought from inside the hogan.  Valerie's Family sells to tourists they have made. 

Hogan Repair Shop in the morning of Day 2

 
  Then we drove around one of the buttes and saw a flowing river, approximately a foot deep, and muddy.  It was so muddy that our leader got stuck so we had to go a different way.



 We drove some more to a rock with a large window called "Ear of the Wind".

Ear of the Wind Arch

 

I tried to make a sand angel, but I just got dirty!!

Sand dunes are steep, but lots of fun to run down!

This is the Big Hogan!

Aren't we cute!!

Day 3
 Mystery Valley

Two Divas at the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park sign

We stopped at a ruin in Mystery Valley, and my dad and I climbed up the steep, steep rock hill.  On top was 3 pools of water.  The water was from rain and was very clean.  I touched the water and it was too cold to swim.  Maybe it could be used to take a bath in the summer.  We did not stay on top too long, it was way too windy.  I felt like I would blow away!

Anasazi Ruins in Mystery Valley

Checking out shards of pottery and we found some old corn cobs.

Bighorn Petroglyph 

Divas in arch

This is in the arch and there are two circular rooms.  Probably for storage in the old'n days.  There was a bunch of packrat evidence. 

Girls with Pictographs

Free roaming horses galloping through the canyon.  Awesome!!

On the way home we had fun playing Uno in the car.

Sydney cleaning up the red dirt!