Day 15: Friday 9-Jul-1999
From: Holbrook, Arizona
To: Munds Park, Arizona
Distance: 111 mi (170 km)
Time: 3h
Excursion: Canyon De Chelly, Arizona
We got up early this morning because we were both moving and also wanted to check out another scenic drive. Turned out that the other scenic drive, Canyon De Chelly, was a bit further away than we had planned for. Just before 6 in the morning we left. First 40 miles (64km) east on I40 to the exit for Highway 191. We were pretty much heading back towards New Mexico again. We were soon in the Navajo Indian reservation, heading north on 191. The surroundings contained more bushes and trees that further west at the Petrified Forrest. Beautiful. We could see cattle on both sides of the road. The fields they had were enormous, compared to what we're used to, some spanning several square miles. After about another 40 miles we arrived at Hubbell trading post -- the longest still active trading post in the Navajo Indian Reservation. We stopped there for a while. They had beautiful Indian artwork in there, including hand made carpets. They were expensive. though. Something small was at least $750. A bigger carpet was $2.5K and up. They also had older rugs, made in the 1930s, but they were even more expensive. They were beautiful, but I cannot imagine spending that amount for a hand made carpet.
We continued on to Canyon de Chelly, which was another 40 miles from the trading post. It was very spectacular. Unfortunately we did not have enough time to see much of it. This was more of an appetizer, for the next time. We saw 4x4s in the valley as well as hikers. Hiking down there is something we definitely want to try the next time. You need a local guide to do this. We imagine you can arrange that via the visitors center near the town of Chinle.
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| A lush old riverbed appears past the mountains in front here. |
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| This is at the big stop where interesting trails start. You can walk all the way down into the valley from up here. Very far down, near the mostly dried up riverbed, there are old Indian ruins (not in this picture), abandoned long before the white man set foot here. |
We rushed back to the trailer and got there at about 12:30, just in time for a quick lunch. All in all this was a round trip of about 240 miles (384km) in one morning. It was only possible because the we could legally drive close to 80 mph (130km/h) on I40. We pulled out of Holbrook at about 2pm and headed for Munds Park. Lillemor drove the first 40 miles (64km). We could see the weather changing over to heavy rain, ahead of us. We'd seen on TV that Las Vegas, a little further out to the west, had had its worst rain storm in 15 years, with major flooding. On our weather equipped CB, we listened to the weather report and heard that they had just experienced serious downpours in Flagstaff and around. By chance we missed most of it, although we had to drive through heavy rain for some time.
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| Dark skies ahead of us towards Flagstaff., Arizona We're stopped at a rest area to change drivers and go to the bathroom. |
We passed by a traffic accident with one truck rolled over on I40 and a few other cars hit. Someone must have lost control in the heavy rain. We watched the spectacular lighting show outside to the northwest as we approached Flagstaff. Flagstaff is at even higher elevation than Holbrook. It is at about 7000ft (2100m). They terrain is wooded and looks very different from the Holbrook area. Almost like the north of Sweden. We had not expected that for Arizona.
The campground at Munds Park is similar to the one we stayed at in Holbrook. A large gravel field with parking spots in it. Feels really odd, especially compared to what we're used to up in the north eastern US. It had rained there shortly before we got there. Their gravel field was tough to drive in, as the truck and trailer sank into the ground. They had then place each campsite a couple of feet above the "street", making for a tricky parking, as Per had to back up in the soft gravel on a slope. We were very concerned about the angle for our hitch in that it could prove to be very hard to get hitched up again. We tried to hitch up again once we were disconnected just to be sure that we could do it again. Almost worked ..
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| Can we get the Hensley hitched back up again? We hope so! |
We ate dinner at the trailer and went to bed fairly early. As in Holbrook we did not have to use the air conditioner during the night .. just our fans.