Mary and I have been to Canyon de Chelly National Monument twice now. It’s possible to see quite a few ruins from the rim drives, but the real magic is taking a tour on the canyon floor with a Navajo Guide. Here’s a few photos and how to do it.
Canyon de Chelly does not get very many visitors compared to other parks due to it’s size (it’s small), location (the town of Chinle is 3-6 hours from the nearest airport or large city), and the unique arrangement where the National Park Service maintains the road and look-outs and protects the cliff dwellings, while the Navajo Nation continues to own the land in Monument and the valley floor. This means, you can drive the rim roads and make photos with a telephoto lens of the cliff dwellings or you have to hire a Navajo guide to take you into the canyons. While, the top ten national parks and monuments receives 3-10 million visitors a year, Canyon de Chelly has a mere 350,00. WHich is to say, this park is not crowded.
My advice is to arrive late afternoon and drive the South Rim and drive the North rim in the morning, this should account for the sun’s position on the ruins. In my opinion, the best lookout on the South Rim is Junction Overlook. I would skip the others. After Junction, drive to the end of the road to see Spider Rock and a stunning view of the valley.
On the North rim drive, I would suggest driving all the way to the end of the road to see Massacre Cave, Yucca Cave and Mummy Cave. On the way back check out the Antelope House Overlook.
A mystery remains about the fate of the White House Overlook and the trail down to the White House Ruin. It was been closed for several years and because of that, there is no way to see the ruin unless you are with a guide.
We have done a first of the day tour in the morning and a last of the day tour in the late afternoon. Both times try to maximize the low angle of the sun and depending on the ruin location is workable. This last trip we started at The White House Ruin as it was our main goal for the trip. Our guide was very generous and let us stay for over 30 minutes. We did not see anyone else in the canyon for a couple of hours.
Then we drove through Canyon del Muerto (the north canyon) to the Antelope House which is the other spectacular ruin on the valley floor
Our guide’s family owns the land around Antelope House, so we got a unique side view of the ruin and were treated to music, more photos, and homemade Navajo jewelry.
Here is a link to the tour company we have used twice. Our tour guide was Jarvin.
https://www.canyondechellytours.com/
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