Navajo National Monument

My next stop was the Navajo National Monument one of my favorite campgrounds.  It was an unexpected delight. The campground was perfect with lots of privacy and I actually stayed a day longer than I planned to take advantage of the sites in the area.  The canyon with the Betakakin dwellings was by far the highlight for me of this National Monument. One has to go with a guide to see the dwellings and I didn’t have the stamina to make the long trek. I took the Sandal Trial to the Betatakin overlook where I was rewarded with this view from above.

 

The park brochure said that the Ancestral Puebloans lived here from about 1250 to 1300. The farmed the canyon floor and rims and stored food in many of the rooms.

 

 

The canyon seemed to go on forever.

 

I walked around the rim on the canyon view trail and snapped this photo from the head of the canyon. The dwellings are on the left side tucked back in the wall.

Here is one of the dinosaur tracks preserved at the visitor center.

 

 

“Walk on a rainbow trail; walk on a trail of song, and all about will be beauty.                                  There is a way out of every dark mist, over a rainbow trail.” – Edward A. Navajo