We visited Canyon de Chelly National Monument in Arizona. This was a day trip from our campsite in Gallup, New Mexico. Canyon de Chelly is part managed by the National Park Service and part by the Navajo Nation. There is a HUGE issue with litter and trash in the expansive park. The litter sadly comes from the locals that live on the park land and part from trash blowing in from he nearby Navajo land. Â Part of the Junior Ranger program was to collect a bag of trash. We started with that as we explored the park.
We explored the many scenic pullouts and overlooks of the park.
Mom was a bit scared to stand on some of the overlooks.
It was pretty far down below to the ground and the railings looks a bit sketchy.
Emmerson and I were fearless and scared Mom and Dad by running on the mesa right up to the unrolled edges of the canyon.
The views were amazing so we decided to hike the White House Trail down into the canyon.
It was a 1.25 mile trail down and as we hiked down re started thinking about the hike back up. Dad kept asking if we wanted to continue. We did!
There were lots of shady spots to cool off and other spots in the warming sun.
We hiked lower and lower into the canyon. I started to think about hiking out more. I wanted to press on but Emmerson was getting tired. Dad and I walked another few minutes and we made it about 3/4 of the way down and then busloads of kids showed up and we called it quits and hiked back out. The elevation change from 80ft above sea level at home to the 5000+ here made it tougher than we all thought to hike out. We made it out just fine and explored more of the park.
I saw something on the map called “Spiders Spire” and we had to go check it out. We hiked down a trail and to an overlook. It was a 700 foot rock that never eroded like the areas around it.
How awesome!
Canyon de Chelly was really beautiful and we enjoyed our time working on our Junior Ranger books, cleaning up trash and exploring the sites. We hiked back to the car and headed to the Ranger Station.
We received our badges and took the Junior Ranger Pledge for this park.
We talk a lot about Junior Ranger badges and patches. Here is some of the collection we have earned so far.
