Cryslers Are Tripping: January 22: Driving through Northwestern New Mexico into Eastern Arizona

Canyon de Chelly, Az.
Indian Ruins located at the botom of the cliff

The Drive continues from New Mexico into Arizona

Sunday, January 22 found us traveling west again toward Sedona, Arizona. The first unique formation we passed was 'Shiprock'~ a volcanic plug. I found this interesting as it sits in a plain but it's a volcanic landform created when magma hardens within a vent on an active volcano.

SHIPROCK

Shiprock (Navajo: Tsé Bitʼaʼí, "rock ith wings" or "winged rock") is a monadnock rising nearly 1,583 feet (482.5 m) above the high-desert plain of the Navajo Nation in San Juan County,

New Mexico, United States. Its peak elevation is 7,177 feet above sea level.

Governed by the Navajo Nation, the formation is in the Four Corners region and plays a significant role in Navajo religion,mythology and tradition. It is located in the center of the Ancient Pueblo People or Ancestral Puebloan civilization, a prehistoric Native American culture of the Southwest United States . The formation figures prominently in Navajo Indian mythology as a giant bird that carried the Navajo from the cold northlands to the Four Corners region. Shiprock, when viewed from certain angles, resembles a large sitting bird with folded wings; the north and south summits are the tops of the wings.often referred to as the Anasazi.

http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiprock

http://climbing.about.com/od/wheretoclimb/a/Facts-About-Shiprock-Sacred-Navajo-Peak-In-New-Mexico.htm

In so many photographs that I have taken on this trip through out the West
you will see layer upon layer of color.

This is what I look for and what I love to photograph.
It is a work in progress.
Many photographs were taken at a fast speed while driving.

Can't you just see Native Americans living in this most beautiful land?

Some estimates show evidence of humans around AD 900.

These are examploes of Monoliths - meaning
single stone

This trip has brought a great awareness to the many different rock formations.

Mushrooms, Spires, Arches, Mesas, Monadnock (Island Mountain) , Monolith (single rock), Rock Pinnacles ~ to name a few.

I have so much more to learn!

Also I just Love the lines of different minerals throught most of them.

One of my favorite pictures showing many layers of colors and shapes~

Another favorite ~ almost looks unreal.

Canyon de Chelly National Monument was established on April 1, 1931 as a unit of theNational Park Service. It is located in northeastern Arizona within the boundaries of the Navajo Nation. Reflecting one of the longest continuously inhabited landscapes of North America, it preserves ruins of the early indigenous tribes that lived in the area, including the Ancient Pueblo Peoples (also called Anasazi) and Navjo. The monument covers 83,840 acres (131.0 sq mi; 339.3 km) and encompasses the floors and rims of the three major canyons: de Chelly, del Muerto, and Monument. These canyons were cut by streams with headwaters in the Chuska mountains just to the east of the monument. None of the land is federally owned. In 2009 Canyon de Chelly National Monument was recognized as one of the most-visited national monuments in the United States. (There are 19 overlooks).

Canyon de Chelly long served as a home for Navajo people before it was invaded by forces led by futureNew Mexico governor Lt. Antonio Narbona in 1805. In 1863 Col. Kit Carson sent troops to either end of the canyon to defeat the Navajo population within. The resulting devastation led to the surrender of the Navajos and their removal to Bosque Redondo, New Mexico.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canyon_de_Chelly_National_Monument

TSEGI OVERLOOK: There are no ruins in sight at this overlook but you can see a well tended farm on the canyon floor.

Spider Rock

The park's distinctive geologic feature, Spider Rock, is a sandstone spire that rises 750 feet from the canyon floor at the junction of Canyon de Chelly and Monument Canyon.... It has served as the scene of a number of television commercials. According to traditional Navajo beliefs the taller of the two spires is the home of Spider Grandmother.

Johns fear of heights did not keep him from looking into the Canyon

And alittle closer he crept!

At White House Overlook a delicate well-preserved 800 room settlement is located beneath a sheer, desert varnish-streaked 500 foot cliff. At little to the west, a smaller cliff dwelling can be seen.