Today we drove from Monument Valley to Page and did a hike into The Lower Antelope Canyon. Buddy was our guide and he was awesome. Not only was he a great guide, but he was a wonderful photography teacher. He knew just where to take the pictures and which settings the camera should be on to get the best shots. The canyon can only be visited with a guide because back in the 90's there was a group of hikers killed due to a flash flood. Today they take heavy precautions with the tours and we all made it out safely with our beautiful pictures.

This canyon is a slot canyon and was considered by the Navajo people to be a cathedral. It was formed through erosion from mostly flash flooding of the sandstone. Here are some of the beautiful and amazing pictures we got today!

It was a beautiful day in Monument Valley. We took a tour into the area with John our Navajo guide. Not only did we get a great deal of history, but he was interesting and answered all our questions about the reservation and the people that live here.

Our first stop was at the two formations known as the two mittens. Do you see them? Use your imagination! The left mitten is close up and the right mitten is far in the back.

John even took our picture in front of the left mitten.

John showed us a great many formations that have names due to the fact that they have a similar appearance to that of different items. Now, you may REALLY have to use your imagination, but here goes!

The 3 sisters because the one on the left looks like a nun!

The Eye!

An Eagle!

A Man!

The Bunny!

The Totem Pole!

The Whisper in the Wind...because the Wind Whispers Through the Hole!

We saw a few more petroglyphs and ruins from the Anasazi people!

And we were back in time to see the sunset  cast some nice colors out onto the mesa! God is Good!

Today we headed out of Winslow and onto the Navajo Reservation....destination Canyon de Chelley (Shey). It was a pretty uneventful trip up to the canyon except we can say that it was pretty frustrating to have a road as straight as this and have a speed limit of only 55 mph. Really Stevie just wanted to drop the hammer and go FAST!

So we arrived in Chinle and met our Navajo guide Aaron. Although Canyon de Chelley is a National Monument it sits on the Reservation and thus you can only enter the canyon with a licensed Navajo guide in their 4 wheel drive vehicle. So, we got into Aaron's Wrangler and we were off! Here were some pictures of our venture out into the canyon. Right now the "wash" as it is called since it is sometimes completely dry and sometimes up to 4 feet deep was about 2 feet in the deepest areas.

We saw more petroglyphs from up to over 2000 years ago! Pretty amazing that these still remain! See this one of a hunting party?

And the humpbacked flute player?

And the antelope?

We saw lots of old ruins from the Anasazi people! Still I am amazed at how they climbed up into these homes and how they built them. Aaron said they either had ladders or build notches in the stone. Oh yeah, so that would have been easy for me....

Finally we visited Katherine a Navajo woman who comes into the canyon every morning to do farming of her garden and animals and work on her weaving and then leaves the canyon every evening. She farms the land that has been in her family for generations. Here she is demonstrating how she makes her own yarn and then weaves her rugs. Amazing.

And finally we arrived tonight in Monument Valley. We will tour tomorrow, but here is a preview as this is what we can see from our balcony!