Day 10

The next morning, Monica and Dan brought our car to a local mechanic to get looked at. I was not looking forward to the diagnosis because involving the rental car company to either replace our vehicle or complicated insurance issues made me nauseous. Luckily, it turned out that we just needed to have our oil filter replaced! Hallelujah! 30 dollars later we were back on track. We ate breakfast at a local Chinle restaurant and quickly realized we were the only white people in the whole restaurant (others were all Navajo). It is so rare to be in that position as a white person but offered some perspective that I found interesting. We tried some of the Navajo fry bread which is a type of fried dough. It was excellent!

After breakfast, we drove into the Canyon de Chelley. We were not allowed to navigate the canyon floor without a guide, which was an expensive ordeal, so we drove the road that lines the south rim of the canyon. We stopped at their most recommended lookout site, Spider Rock Overlook, which provided beautiful views of the canyon as well as a distant view of an old Navajo dwelling built over 1000 years ago right into the side of the cliff. As we got out of the car we heard a loud rumbling of thunder, saw lightning in the distance, and it began to rain. One thing you do not mess with out here is thunderstorms! We sat patiently in the car until we caught a break between storms. We got out of the car and sure enough heard more thunder and saw more lightning. Back to the car we went for another 15 minutes or so. Finally, we caught a manageable break in the action and walked the distance to the lookout point. The canyon was impressive to look at as well as the cliff dwellings. It was frustrating to see the dwellings from hundreds of feet away and not be able to get closer to them. We drove the rest of the route stopping at various vantage points but did not spend too much time outside of the car as the rain continued as did the storms. As we left Navajo country, we all communicated a similar experience. We never felt quite welcome from the Navajo we encountered, which was definitely understandable because of past events in our nation's history. It was sad to see the poverty that has stricken that area and we had no problem giving some of our money to their shops, restaurants, and hotels.


We left that area and headed down to Petrified Forest National Park. We immediately wondered why it was called Petrified Forest National Park and not Painted Desert National Park. The Painted Desert is a gorgeous collection of colorful bands of hills that make it hard to look away. The bands each represent different composition that vary from sandstone to hematite and other minerals. The first stop we made was an overlook that showed a field of petrified wood. It was amazing to see the former logs that had crystallized into quartz. A close-up view of the wood was beautiful and showed the details of color, composition, and its historic transformation.


We stopped at a big Navajo trading post before leaving Arizona and there I bought some good ol' beef jerky for the ride. Chomping on the jerky saying goodbye to Arizona, I eagerly anticipated the rest of the adventure while also mourned the departure of the Arizona scenery. We spent the night in Gallup, NM which was a forgetful town (except for the weird fake palm tree near our hotel) but lined with cheap motels that allowed us to get some comfortable shut-eye.