Canyon de Chelly: On the road to ruins

Take a backcountry tour into Navajo history at Canyon de Chelly National Monument, a colorful landscape of soaring red-rock canyon walls and 1,000-year-old ruins in northeastern Arizona.

The Deal: The special lodging-and-exploration package, called a Magical History Tour, includes two nights of lodging at Thunderbird Lodge, a motel within the monument; a half-day canyon tour for two in an off-road, six-wheel drive vehicle; continental breakfast; and a copy of a 46-minute video called “Canyon de Chelly, American History, Heritage and Tradition.” The package is $330 for the half-day tour; a full-day tour is available for $375.

Details: The monument, one of Arizona’s most unusual parks, offers great scenery coupled with the opportunity to visit Navajo farms, explore cliff-side ruins and see primitive rock art. The park is about a five-hour drive northeast of Phoenix and is made up almost entirely of Navajo Tribal Trust Land; the National Park Service manages the park and its resources in partnership with the Navajo Nation. Except for one short hiking trail, visitors may enter the canyon only with a trained Navajo guide.

When: April 1 to October 31, 2007

Contact: Thunderbird Lodge, (800) 679-2473

— Rosemary McClure, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

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This entry was posted on Saturday, March 10, 2007 at 3:28 am by admin and is filed under Arizona, Family & Kids, National Parks, Outdoors & Adventure, Weekend Getaways. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.