Betatakin

Betatakin
The Navajo Natl monument is all about appreciation of the Indian Culture. We got up and made our guide tour commitment at 10:30. We missed the 8am tour by over sleeping.
We were going into this Canyon by foot.

From Riding SM4C, Sabmag

An Indian ranger gal was our guide. She was knowledgeable and pleasant. Here's one of the places where she gave us info about the Native use of the herbs of the area.

From Riding SM4C, Sabmag

From near the top we can see the trail below.......

From Riding SM4C, Sabmag

Nip and I both survive the going down part in good spirits.

From Riding SM4C, Sabmag

The ceiling of that alcove was consider unstable so we didn't get any closer than the last picture. That was cool. The ranger told us all that they knew, (or thought) about the Indians that lived there.
She said that the women did the masonry work here, and there were about 25 families there....and of course many of the stories of the ruins have fallen down
Peculiarly, the Indian lived here in the 13th century, but thru carbon dating these ruins were used for less than fifty year. That's extremely short as many cliff dwelling in the southwest were centuries old.
Here's my best picture.

From Riding SM4C, Sabmag

Also everywhere we looked on the ground near the ruins were lots of pot shards.
Looking across the canyon from the ruins.

From Riding SM4C, Sabmag

We got ourselves up the 800 ft ft of vertical rise back to the Visitor's Center. It wasn't too bad. This Indian maid was in the VC weaving a rug. That's a couple of months worth of work by the time she's finished.

From Riding SM4C, Sabmag

......and here's another artist selling small painting. He could really capture a scene...

From Riding SM4C, Sabmag

There were donation bowls for the artists and another for the VC. I chose to give a small donation to the artists.

There's another Ruin known as Keat Seel with an overnight walking tour to it. It's eight miles away, and you have to carry everything in for the night. That's at least 2 gallons of water. I Don't know if I can do that...but I'm thinking about it. :eek1 Maybe next year when I grow up. :D

Later that day the ADVriders, the Tuckers, rolled into camp just across the street from us. They were on their way to Alaska's DtoD rally in Dawson City.
They had been forewarned, about me, by Gery with an E. Small world.
...Look at those classy BMWs. James and Colleen were great to spend an evening with.

From Riding SM4C, Sabmag

Another nice day was had. We would spend another night there camping, then move on to Canyon De Chelle tomorrow...  BTW, for some reason that's pronounced Canon de Shay.