Another day in paradise

Canyon De Chelly on the Navajo reservation in NW Arizona remains one of our favorite hikes. We woke up at 5 a.m. packed the car and were on the trail by 7. The rock walls of the canyon were a deep red against a bright blue sky. Over eons, water smoothly carved the sandstone of this canyon creating overhangs, caves, hollowed out ovals, and swirling patterns. On the floor of the canyon, was a small farm with sheep and gardens. The trees and plants were like finding an oasis in the middle of a desert.










Here Q photographs the canyon in the awesome early morning light.





















Ivo and Xi have reached the canyon floor and are headed toward the trees. Beyond lies the Anasazi dwelling called the White House.













Here is the Anasazi cliff dwelling, called the White House. This cliff dwelling, compared to the ones we saw at Mesa Verde, was much lower to the ground. I believe these people farmed the bottom of the canyon rather than the top of the mesa. You can see how smooth and steep the cliff above the dwelling is; we couldn't capture it all in one picture. -Xi


One of the things I was most excited about seeing on this trip was the desert.

After driving through, hiking in and experiencing a number of different types of desert environments, I'd use many contradictory adjectives to describe this remarkable part of the planet; beautiful, dangerous, hot, calm, comfortable, full of life, void of life, dry, unforgiving, and more. Yesterday we dug fossils in a very remote part of Utah, 50 miles from the closest town. It was 101 degrees F. bone dry and at the end of 20 miles of dirt road. This was the most vulnerable and worried I have been in the desert. However, our car performed beautifully and despite the dust storm we encountered on the way out, we had a great time and found well over 100 good trilobite fossils. -S