Although the roads are well paved, and many sections have sidewalks, there is dirt everywhere else - no gravel, no landscaping. When the wind blows, the reddish dirt gets into everything.
We had breakfast at the same restaurant as last night, and saw many of the same people, including a very nice group of four Harley-Davidson bikers on their way to Arizona bike week in Scottsdale. We chatted with them briefly; they were hoping for warmer weather since riding a bike even at 60° can be very cold. Of course, none of them was wearing a helmet, since that is not required in Arizona.
Random observation: all of the school buses I've seen in Arizona are white on top and have air conditioning. My assumption is that the white top helps to reflect the sun.
Canyon de Chelly is a much smaller Canyon east of the Grand Canyon and within the Navajo reservation. Chelly is actually the Anglicized version of the Navajo word Tse' Yi'. Besides the size, Canyon de Chelly differs from the Grand Canyon in two other regards. First, the sandstone walls that have been eroded are sheer cliffs, leaving a flat valley below with interesting formations sticking up. Secondly, the Valley is home to a number of Navajos who farm there. In some cases these farms are just summer homes because the weather in the canyon can be very severe. At this time of year is starting to become green and we could see the fields prepared for planting. The area surrounding the canyon also has many individual homes. A number of these homes have "hogans", which are six sided huts used as additional rooms. They may or may not have windows, and they are always made with just one door, which faces East to catch the morning sun. As a people, the Navajos are very reluctant to have their photos taken, so we did not take any others than in the canyon itself, as a matter of respect.
The spider woman formation was particularly important to the Navajos. They respected the spider woman God, because she taught them how to weave.
From Canyon de Chelly we traveled on a variety two-lane roads through Arizona and into the bottom of Utah to get to Monument Valley. This was a change of pace for us, for instead of looking down at all of the rock formations in the canyons, we were able to look up at Monument Valley.
The way to Monument Valley was all "high desert", meaning that it varied between six and 7000 feet in elevation and was relatively flat with some mountain ranges here and there and had enough grass for open grazing for cows, sheep, and horses. We frequently saw them right at the side of the road as we passed by.
Monument Valley comprises some spectacular rock formations that are left standing after severe erosion, and in addition there are a few lava plugs, such as El Capitan, that were left after the rest of the volcano was eroded. Monument Valley has a 17 mile long, unpaved dirt road that allows you to get up close and personal with many of these rock formations. It was a challenging drive, taking us over two hours, but Bob was able to test our new Volvo as an off-road vehicle. It passed with dusty colors. The fine dust on the road is carried into every crevice of everything. We will definitely have to wash the car tomorrow.
The rest of the afternoon was spent going through more of Navajo nation, into Utah and then Colorado, through Mexican Hat and finally to Cortez to spend the night. Tomorrow we will make it down to New Mexico to complete our trip through the corners of the four states.
Since we knew we were going to New Mexico, we didn't feel the need to visit the actual four corners Monument, but we did take a peek down the road, about 5 miles, as we passed the turnoff to it. We're pretty sure we saw the monument - after all, we were way closer to it than Russia is to Wasilla!
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