Change of plans

So since we had funky water at the hotel in Chinle we revised our plans and so we needed to see all of Canyon de Chelley in one day and then make our way all the way over to Flagstaff, about halfway across Arizona. Since there's only one short hike in the park this seemed like a pretty easy day.

We headed in to the park and straight to the south scenic drive and the White House ruins hike. Canyon de Chelley is all Navajo lands and not a full on national park. The scenic viewpoints along the canyon rim are all within the national park but the valley floor is all protected land, with the exception of the White House ruins hike. This would be a pretty similar hike to the Cassidy Arch trail from Capitol Reef except it starts at the top and heads down to the valley below and leaves you with a nice climb for the hike out :) We made it down pretty quickly, yay gravity, with plenty of stops for pictures along the way as the scenery changes as you descend and make your way across the canyon walls. Then it's just a short walk to the ruins which are tucked in under a huge sheer wall. The ruins are fenced off so you can't get too close but someone has kindly located rocks along the fence at strategic locations so that it's easier to get pictures over the fence. The sky was pretty overcast so I didn't take too many pictures and well, not much has changed since the last time I visited anyway :)

The hike back seemed much longer as we made our way back up to the top. The skies had cleared enough for it to start to get hot but not enough to get us clear blue skies for pictures. We took it fairly easy and eventually got back to the car a bit winded but ready to see the rest of the park. We headed all the way in to the end of the loop drive to see the Spider Rock formation, named after the Spider Woman legend. From there we worked our way back to the visitor center stopping at overlooks to get pictures of the valley below and often with ruins way across the other side of the canyon. Next up was the north loop which I had not seen on my previous trip. We hit all of the viewpoints there and there were much better views of the ruins below although you're at least 500ft up so you can't get up close and personal. I think next time we're in the neighborhood we'll do one of the guided tours of the valley so that we can see more.

After packing back up we headed out of Chinle, south towards I-40. This would be the first time we were back on dual carriageway since the start of the trip but we were looking forward to being able to cover ground quickly. This was a pretty short drive, just 3hrs but since we got a late start we stopped at Denny's for dinner in Holbrook, seriously one of the friendliest places on the trip. The rest of the drive we were able to enjoy the sunset which helped pass the time since there's not much else to see on I-40 :) We got checked into the hotel, conveniently located for the next drive, and crashed for the night.