Canyon de Chelly

Friday morning as soon as we had washed, breakfasted, watched the news from home, fed the dogs, walked the dogs we were almost ready to go. Art had already connected the Jeep and put the hoses away, all that remained was to bring in the slides, retract the jacks, stow the electric cord and we were on our way.

Not too far though. We had half a tank of fuel and our route was one of open spaces and very small towns. The cost of running a diesel engine out of fuel was the deciding factor here though we were horrified at the price of diesel but bit the bullet and put in $100.00 worth at 4.499 per US gallon ($1.18 per litre). Guess we've been spoiled. The cheapest we have filled at was 4.049 (1.066/litre). We are looking forward to Mexico where it will likely be somewhere between 80 and 90 cents per litre.

We were on the road again before 9:30 for Canyon de Chelly National Monument in northern Arizona. Chelly is a Spanish corruption of the Native American name Tseyi. (In Spanish the ll is pronounced y.) De Chelly is pronounced De Shay.

The scenery along the way was interesting in itself.  You couldn't tell from the terrain where Utah ended and Arizona began.

We arrived at the Visitor Center at 12:20 after passing several service stations with diesel significantly cheaper than that which we had on board! Ah well, better safe than sorry!

After a quick lunch parked at the Visitor Center (and checking with them) we set off on our tour of the South Road in the motorhome, Jeep in tow. There are 7 view points on the south rim; we decided to visit them choosing the order by the terrain: We would stop in the viewpoint if we could leave on  a downhill run, rather than grinding up the steep grades from a standing start. This meant that the first two were actually the last two to view but the order was really irrelevant. Here are some pics in no particular order:

 

In the last photo you can just make out a fenced area on the left and a house at the lower right. This area is in the Navajo Nation and is populated and actively farmed. Seems a little too dry for our liking!