After Monument Valley, we headed to Canyon de Chelly, pronounced Canyon de Shay. We got to the visitor’s center just before it closed. Then, we set out for our reserved campsite, about 30 miles up the canyon. We had picked it because it was very close to what my research indicated was the best sunset spot on the canyon, Spider Rock.

It’s a little misleading to say it was a reserved campsite. I had called and talked to the guy who ran it. He said sure, please send our information, which I did. Then, I never heard from him again, and I never gave him a credit card number. I figured that it was 50/50 that we had a campsite.

I never found out if we had a campsite. We couldn’t find anybody when we got to the campsite, but that didn’t matter. There was zero chance we were staying. Let’s just say it was a primitive campground. We’ve had this issue before. You just have to roll with it.

The other campground in Chinle, the town at the entrance to the canyon, was either full or expensive for a campground. We spent the next two night at a Holiday Inn. We had great Navajo tacos that night.

The weather was pretty good for photography the next morning, cloudy with occasional light rain. Sometimes a little sun would come through. Joyce took advantage of the conditions and got this really nice shot:

The canyon is more than scenic. People live there. If you’re not a tribe member, you have to have a guide to go into the canyon. These trips are even more expensive than those at Monument Valley. So, we stuck to he roads on the canyon rims. These were great. They had parking and trails. Some had restrooms.

The South Rim is generally best for photography in the morning, while the North Rim, especially Spider Rock is the hot ticket for late afternoon and evenings. Unfortunately, sunset was too overcast for great shots.

I mentioned that people live in the canyon, but they are not the first inhabitants. People have lived here for hundreds (thousands?) of years, as they have throughout the American Southwest. There are ancient pueblos scattered throughout the canyon. It’s a bit of a challenge photographing them from the canyon rim, but we managed to get a few OK shots.

We got a chance to talk to a current resident. He and his family have a home in the canyon and one on the rim. He inherited them from his grandfather, and they move between the two with the seasons. He makes jewelry, and I suspect that his life is not all that different from his grandfather’s. He was proud of his life and his work, which was excellent.

I wanted to buy one of his bracelets for Joyce. It was beautiful, silver with engravings that depicted his life and the seasons. Unfortunately, he didn’t take debit/credit cards, and we just don’t carry that much cash, town was 25 miles away, and sunset was coming.

I was reminded of my mantra from the old banking days when people sometimes got a little too bureaucratic: “Never make it hard for someone to give you money.”

It’s tempting to romanticize that life, but it’s not always an easy life. We saw a house near the entrance to the canyon where a man was cooking outside. His house was not all that much larger than our van. There were no electricity lines going to the house, and there was an outhouse. The only heat appeared to be a small window-mounted wood stove of the type that some van lifers use. I’m thinking that January is pretty uncomfortable for the man cooking outside.

And that’s the problem, balance. I love nature, but we were staying in a hotel instead of a primitive campground. Some conveniences are not negotiable for most of us.