After spending the day in the canyon, the next day we drove the two rims and did the only hike into the canyon that is allowed without a Navajo guide. It was awesome to see the same sights from the higher perspective.
There are three pulloffs (and five viewpoints) from the north rim drive. There are six or so fr
om the south rim drive.
The hike to White House ruins, which we had seen on our tour, was about a mile and one-half each way with a 550 foot elevation gain. The trail was well-used and in decent condition with lots of switchbacks. Water, hats and sunscreen are advised but iInevitably we saw lots of "hikers" with no water and wearing flip flops! They made it, but.... Shown here is the view from the top. The next photo shows the swirling sandstone we 
passed on our hike.
Looking down you can get see the farms along the rivers. The ruins look tiny. On the south rim we looked down on Spider Rock in Canyon de Chelly, which is 800 feet tall! At this point the canyon walls are about 1000 feet high.
We stayed in the park campgroun
d. Even though our friend Lloyd had not been able to use his Aircard, we had thought we might get an Internet signal with ours because we had a strong cell phone signal plus we have an amplifier and Wilson antenna. We finally figured out that there was no data signal. We had parked in Loop #3, a little far from the Lodge which did have free Wi-Fi. Every once in a while the signal would come through, but when a lot of people were on I had to drive up to the lodge, park outside and use my computer in the truck. (I probably could have gone in the cafeteria if I had wanted to order something.)
On to Chaco Canyon. As you read, we had our third tire problem in less than a year. It didn't happen in the best of spots but the tire held long enough to get to a school yard to change it. More from Chaco. Jaimie Hall-Bruzenak Photos by George Bruzenak
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