|
“Behind the Scenes”
Canyon de Chelly & Monument
Valley & Sedona, Arizona
May 10-16, 2004
Captions by Dick Sutphen
Click on pictures to enlarge
“Canyon de Chelly (pronounced “de shay”) is a labyrinth of sheer-walled canyons, spectacular in their beauty and enthralling in their history. Now home of the Navajo, Canyon de Chelly
once harbored the mystery-shrouded culture of the Anasazi -- ancient people the canyon’s many ruins.” This is the opening statement in the National Parks book on the canyon. I will add that the canyon was also
home to the Hopi people from 1300 to 1600. They planted peach trees throughout the canyon. The Navajo came in about 1700 and today they call the canyon Tasegi (SAY-ih).
 In the background is Junction Ruin, once
inhabited by the Anasazi. At this point, the canyon splits, shooting off in two directions. The left fork is Canyon del Muerto. Each main branch is about 20 miles from mouth to head.
 Tara with a follower. Our horses were both
mares with month-old foals, and this is the first time the youngsters had journeyed into the canyon.
Every time we stopped to talk or look at the view, the foals nursed.
 Junction Ruin: No one is allowed in the canyon
without a guide, so we hired a young Navajo woman named Edwina who lives with her grandmother up on the rim. The Navajo, like the Hopi, are a matriarchal society, so land is passed
down through the female descendants. Edwina showed us the area of the canyon that belongs to her family.
Click on photos to enlarge
The Navajo people call the streaks on the canyon walls, “Mother Nature’s Hair.”
 This is sacred ground if ever I have experienced
it. Although I had visited the canyon from the rim years ago, I had never ridden through it. I felt like I had come home, like I belonged here. To me, Canyon de Chelly is the most beautiful place on earth.
 White House Ruin was built by ancient Puebloan
people (750-1300). A large number of people lived here.
 Spider Rock is an 800-foot sandstone spire that
rises from the Junction of Canyon de Chelly and Monument Canyon. At this point the canyon walls rise to 700 feet. Deeper in the Canyon, the walls reach 1000 feet.
 Archeological evidence shows that people have
lived in these canyons for nearly 5,000 years -- longer than anyone has lived uninterrupted anywhere on the Colorado Plateau.
At this moment, there is nowhere I would rather be, nothing I would rather be doing.
Monument Valley
 About 100 miles from Canyon de Chelly in
Northeastern Arizona is Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. One of the world’s most recognized and photographed landscapes, the beautiful red sandstone buttes push skyward
from the desert floor toward blue skies. This cluster of majestic pinnacles is synonymous with the image the great Southwest.
Here we are on the Utah side, looking back at Monument Valley, Arizona.
Again, we are totally at home in this environment and with the Navajo people.
Tuzigoot Ruins & Sedona
 Tara and me at the Tuzigoot Pueblo near
Sedona. On the “10-Person Escorted Sedona Psychic Vortex Exploration,” we will take a couple hours to visit this site, explore psychometry and meditate here. The Pueblo
sits on a high ridge overlooking the Verde river. Archeologists call the former residents the Sinagua. They populated the pueblo from 1000 to 1400.
 Getting ready to climb to the top of Cathedral
Rock. On Saturday afternoon, while the Sedona Psychic Seminar participants were exploring the vortexes on their own, Tara and I visited Cathedral Rock -- a magnetic vortex,
which activates your subconscious memories. Tara meditated at this level while I climbed. The climb is listed as “strenuous” and there are places where you only have a toehold. The
view from the top is exhilarating.
 This shot of Tara and me with Cathedral
Rock in the background was posted in relationship to our October 2003 Healing Seminar in Sedona. “USA Today” newspaper recently voted Sedona (showing a photo of Cathedral Rock) “the most beautiful place in
America.”
Enjoying a cold beer at Oaxaco after an afternoon in the vortexes.
|
