Tunnel Trail to First Ruins-Canyon de Chelly

The Tunnel Trail is a ranger led free hike offered during the summer season at Canyon de Chelly National Monument at Chinle in northeast Arizona. Except at the White House Ruins Trail, all hiking in the inner canyon must be accompanied by a ranger or a Navajo guide.

In June 2011, the Tunnel Trail hike is offered on Friday mornings starting at 6:45 AM and lasting until about 10:30 AM for about 4 miles of hiking. The hiking groups meet at the Visitor Center, then shuttle to the Tunnel Overlook, the first of seven overlooks on the south rim.

The trail descends about 200 feet to the canyon floor down stairs and a switchback trail. Along the way, the ranger introduces the canyon geology and some of the 5000 years of the history of the people who have lived here.
 

Part of the way down the descent, there is a pictograph panel visible high on the cliffs. Viewing the Canyon de Chelly from the rim overlooks, visitors don’t see any of the many rock art panels that are here. This panel is far enough away from the trail that binoculars are needed to see very much.
 

Reaching the canyon floor, the walking is over loose sand heading up the canyon. In the spring, this area will have flowing water but in late June the water is several feet below the surface.

Vehicles from the residents and tour groups grind along in the sand. After about 0:45 minutes of hiking we arrived at an area called the Sleeping Duck, named for the resemblance of the rock formation.
 

On the cliffs near the Sleeping Duck, there are many pictograph images that are above an early era Basketmaker ruins area. The images were faint but visible with binoculars. The trees that grow on the canyon floor are Cottonwoods, Willows, Tamarisks, and Russian Olives. There has been a project for several years to remove the invasive Tamarisks and Russian Olives. This activity has opened up the views of the canyon walls, and seems to be well appreciated by residents and visitors.

The hike highlight is First Ruins, the first large ruins site that the early investigators found. Most of the ruins sites in Canyon de Chelly are located in alcoves above the canyon floor, but with access to the floor. The farming areas that were used here and the water available is on the floor, rather than the mesa tops like the Mesa Verde area. Locating in an alcove above the floor avoids the danger of flooding. However, hikers to White House Ruins will notice that there are structures there built on the floor area.

We viewed First Ruins from the sandy floor area at least 100 yards away, so details are hard to see. The occupation period is thought to be 1025 to 1250 AD. It has about 20 rooms and 2 kivas. There has been some reconstruction over the years. With binoculars there are some white pictographs visible on the right side of the alcove.

On the return hike we stopped at Petroglyph Rock which can be seen from the Tunnel Overlook once you know to look for it. There are rock art images on three sides and they represent the Ancestral Pueblos, the Hopis, and the Navajo. Up high on the east side, it looks there are two atlatls being hurled into fleeing animals and there is a human figure with a duck sitting on its head among the many figures.

The Hopi work is in the center of the south side and is described as clan symbols. On the sides are Navajo horse riders pursuing game. It was a comfortable 63 F degrees when we started at 7:00 AM and was still reasonable at the 10:30 finish.
 

The walking on loose sand for part of the way is annoying, but the route is otherwise mostly level and easy. The pace was leisurely and discussions were held in the shady areas. I carried and drank 2 liters of water.

Junction Ruins to Standing Cow-Canyon de Chelly

Junction Ruins to Standing Cow Ruins is the lower and middle part of the Canyon del Muerto arm of the Canyon de Chelly National Monument in northeast Arizona. To visit the inner canyon areas visitors must be accompanied by a Navajo Guide or a Park Ranger.

I went on a private half day jeep tour to just the del Muerto arm, from the canyon mouth to Mummy Cave Ruins. The standard half day tours visit as far as Standing Cow and then visit the Canyon de Chelly arm as far as White House ruins.

The Junction Ruins are located at the junction of Canyon de Chelly and Canyon del Muerto. They are visible from the Junction overlook on the south rim drive. On the tour I took, Junction Ruins was the fourth stop and it took about 0:20 minutes of sandy driving to get here. The sites near the canyon mouth can be hiked to on the Tunnel Trail hike. In 2011, this free hike is being offered on Friday mornings.
 

After Junction Ruins there is a succession of small sites and it is hard to keep them straight. The sites are called Echo Ruins, Small Cave, Ceremonial Cave, and Round Corners. Most of the sites in the Canyon de Chelly area are in alcoves above the canyon floor and are viewed from a distance.
 

At one time, there was a north rim overlook of Ledge Ruins, but this overlook has been closed for a long time. In addition to the obvious small group of structures, there are two small storage structures in an alcove to the left. In the vicinity of Ledge Ruins there is another site high on the cliffs called Bridge Ruins.

Antelope House is the largest of the sites in Canyon del Muerto except for Mummy Cave. It appears to be the only one with structures that sit on the canyon floor. The interpretive sign at the Antelope Overlook says that building here began in 700 AD and continued on and off for 600 years. Most of what we see was constructed after 1050 AD. There is also an interpretive sign at the site that explains how these structures were built.

The park brochure says that Antelope House has an unusual circular plaza. It’s hard to see the circular plaza at the site but it is visible from the overlook to the right of the tall tower.

My guide mentioned that Antelope House might have been a trading center as pottery of many different styles was found there.

The Antelope House name comes from the series of pictographs along the left side of the site. The drawings are attributed to a Navajo who lived here in the early 1800s.
 

Standing Cow Ruins is a small site but has the interesting large cow pictograph. I think this was done by the same artist who we see at Antelope House. To the right of the cow, it looks like there are some vague white flute player images.

Just before the Standing Cow is the Narbona Panel, depicting the 1805 Spanish massacre that gives Canyon del Muerto its name. I didn’t get close enough to it to get a good picture, but it is a detailed and interesting panel. The normal half day group tour usually turns around at Standing Cow Ruin and returns to the canyon junction, then up Canyon de Chelly. From Standing Cow it is about 0:40 minutes of travel to the large Mummy Cave Ruins.

White House Ruins Rock Art

The White House Ruins Trail is a 2.5 or 3 mile round trip with 600 feet of elevation change at Canyon de Chelly National Monument in northeast Arizona. There are several examples of pictograph rock art to find while viewing the ruins.

The most obvious images are on the sandstone surface between the upper and lower structures. There is a protective fence that prevents close inspection, so binoculars are helpful to see these details. There is also a group of images at about the same level to the left of the structures.

The human image is the most obvious. This type of image is found at other sites in the Four Corners region, sometimes as a pictograph and sometimes as a petroglyph. There is a very similar pictograph image near Sipapu Bridge in Natural Bridges National Monument in the Cedar Mesa area of Utah and a similar petroglyph along the Penasco Blanco Trail at Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. There is a line of white spots to the left of the human figure that might be easily overlooked.
 

The panel to the left of the structures has at least four images. I noticed on this visit that there are historic inscriptions on the white plaster of the central room of the upper structures. These aren’t very noticeable from casual viewing but show up clearly with binoculars.

The oldest that I could see was J.W. Conway, Santa Fe, September 24, 1873. There are at least two others, one by J.W. Ellison in 1884 and another by Harold Bonnstetter 2/7/1923. I tried a computer search for JW Conway but couldn’t discover who he was or why he was here in 1873. This reminds me of the Inscription Rock at El Moro National Monument south of Gallup, New Mexico where several hundred years of travelers inscriptions, including many in Spanish, are on display.
 

To the right of the White House Ruins there is a small alcove. I looked into the alcove with binoculars and thought that I could see two flute player pictographs on the back wall. My attempts at getting a picture didn’t show anything so I’m not sure. This alcove is also protected with a fence, so the views are from at least 100 feet away. 

My hike took 1:45 hours on a 36 F degree mid February day. I saw 5 other hikers and 3 Navajo vendors during my hike, and 4 horses grazing near the ruins.

Inner Canyon Tour at Canyon de Chelly

Canyon de Chelly National Monument is entirely inside the Navajo Indian Reservation in NE Arizona. Besides being a spectacular natural feature with 700 foot sheer sandstone walls, it has two cultural overlays.

It is the traditional center of Navajo territory since their arrival in the area 500 years ago, and it has ruins of the collapsed Anasazi pueblo culture that moved out 700 years ago.


The rim drives are open at all times but the inner canyon is restricted. A good way to see visit the rest of the canyon bottom is to take one of the 4 wheel drive tours. The tour I took started at the Thunderbird Lodge and entered at the canyon mouth. The tour lasted nearly four hours and started up the north arm, called Canyon del Muerto continueing to just past the Antelope House ruin.

There were about 20 on the tour in a big 4 x 4 truck outfitted with padded seats. The driver was a Navajo whose family had a camp in north arm and who had been giving tours for 27 years.

The Antelope House Ruin is visible from above at one of the overlooks along the north rim. Navajo Fortress is visible from the same area.

Along the way. besides the ruins and the lush scenery at the canyon bottom, we passed the summer activities of Navajo families, some farming and herding, and children playing in the water.

The massive cliffs that form the walls of the canyon are De Chelly Sandstone. The De Chelly Sandstone was deposited as dunes in an arid environment about 250 to 230 million years ago. The caprock along the canyon is known as the Shinarump Conglomerate, a layer of stream deposited sand and gravel.

We turned around and went back down Canyon Del Muerto and up the Canyon de Chelly arm to the White House ruins. This ruin can be visited by trail also.

There is a lot of rock art along the way in lower parts of the Canyon de Chelly. The tours may go past these sites quickly, or the views may just be from the vehicle. Near the Canyon mouth is Kokopelli Cave. On the left side of the cave are pictographs of handprints and a reclining flute player.

There is also a site near the canyon mouth called Newspaper Rock and Triangle Man just across from it. Newspaper Rock has many images but they are hard to see without binoculars. Whether the tour stops at these sites might depend on the guide.

A short distance before the Antelope House is a site called Black Bull Cave. Here there are some broad shouldered painted figures and hand prints. The yellow image is a flute player but is hard to see.

(I later took a tour in a jeep and saw some more of the details in this area, particularly the small ruins sites. Use the label "Canyon de Chelly Tours".)