If you feel you’ve been to the Grand Canyon enough times and want to see more of Arizona, why not go to Canyon de Chelly (pronounced “de Shay”)?

A three-day weekend trip to this national monument near the Four Corners can be both educational and mystical. You will come back having learned a little more about the high desert and the Navajo way of life, and with a heightened awareness that only a journey to a place like this can bring about.

A good choice for the first night’s stop is the La Posada, just a little over an hour’s drive east of Flagstaff. This railroad hotel, with its intriguing history, has such a great ambience that just going there and nowhere else, can make for a real vacation.

From the hotel, you will head East veering north a little towards Chinle. But rather than taking the highway, try travelling via the slower route, the historic 66. You will come close to knowing how it may have felt like to be a traveler before the highways took over.

You’ll know you are in the high plateau once the sky opens up and the terrain becomes mottled with sage. There’s plenty of time to soak in the scenery. And when you see the Canyons looming out in the horizon, the mind will have reached an almost zen-like state, ready to be one with nature.

As you get closer to the National Monument in the town of Chinle, you’ll start noticing the dome-shaped Navajo homes called hogans. Occasionally, you will see the less distinct, but also dome-like sweat lodge. In this rather unimpressive structure of bent willow and tarp covered with blankets, the village shaman drenches heated basalt rocks with water that’s been infused with herbs. The steam is so hot it could singe an unprotected earlobe. But not to worry, the heat builds up gradually. (By the way, one can participate in a similar ritual in the Mexican and Yaqui-Indian barrio of Guadalupe here in the Valley. It is called “temezcal” and it is more for curative rather ceremonial purposes).

At any of the hotels near the Monument, you can contract with an outfitter who will help you enjoy the Canyon up close. The cost of the guided tour is very reasonable for a half-day’s trip (self-guided tours on the rim are free).  Tours are run by the Navajos and they are the only ones allowed to be guides. Nevertheless, going with a guide in his jeep, and your family can all be in one, will assure you of an authentic experience. He will speak in English, though you might pick up on some unfamiliar sounds characteristic of the native language.

Your guide will take you into the Canyons by driving on the riverbed. In between timely geology lessons, he will entertain your questions about Navajo life and about his own as well.  He will stop the jeep where there are petroglyphs high up on sheer walls of sandstone. He will draw your attention to the depictions of deer -hunting or a bountiful corn harvest by moving around a hand-held mirror which would bounce sunlight back to the carvings. As he navigates his four-wheeler around the bushes that line the riverbed, he may mention that the National Forest Service introduced non-native vegetation. No one could predict the outcome of this human interference.  These bushes have taken over parts of the canyon as to influence and at times restrict the flow of water. The Canyon is now being shaped unnaturally, and slowing down the process has become an on-going challenge.

Yes, you will get off the jeep to study the ancient dwellings perched high up on the cliff walls. They were left behind by the Anasazis who disappeared without a trace. To this day, no one knows why they left and where they went. While looking around, imagine the children playing on the precarious but otherwise layered rocks. Can you hear the echoes reverberating between the canyon walls as the parents call for them to come home at sunset?

Do extend your trip to the Painted Desert where you will find the world’s largest “petrified” forest. You may roam around and be amongst the fossils of fallen trees. And lest you get tempted to take a seemingly insignificant souvenir with you, make sure that it’s something you pick up from the museum shop, and not from where it has sat for eons; it belongs there.  Later on you will be amused by an exhibit that displays rocks mailed back from different parts of the world.  They were accompanied by letters of visitors who described mishaps that have occurred after taking these innocent-looking stones home, and that includes rocky marriages!

Nelly Rana, a Kumon Math and Reading instructor, taught Earth Science in middle school and Math and Physics in high school. You may email Nelly at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it