We found a site at the clean, well-maintained, and free Sunset View Campground. We set up camp, ate dinner and then I went for a little walk on the Canyon Rim Trail. The walk was interesting. It started at the visitor center near an old hogan and Navajo cart
and led to an old visitor contact station left over from the 60s.
I retraced my way back to camp and settled in for the night.
In the morning we headed over to the visitor center for our guided hike to the Betatakin Ruins. We met our guide at about 8:15. His name was Bill Little and we followed him in his truck to the trailhead. The hike started out on an old road with lots of great views looking out over the Tsegi Canyon system.
Bill explained some of the Navajo uses of some of the plants that we saw as we hiked. Soon the road ended and we were on a trail. The trail we followed left the monument and later reentered it. The trail was built back in the 30s by the CCC. The boys even left a few marks on the sandstone along the trail.
We descended into the canyon and made our way up to the ruins.
The ruins were impressive.
In my opinion they are just as interesting as any other cliff dwellings anywhere and said to be amongst the best preserved. We walked to a spot just outside the ruin complex and Bill told us about some of the archeology and discussed how life may have been for the Ancestral Puebloans who lived there. Then he took us to see some interesting pictographs and petroglyphs.
After admiring the ruins and rock art, Noelle and I were on our own to hike back to the car.
The views were spectacular, but the temperature was rising and there wasn't much shade on the trail. It was hard work trudging through some of the loose sand in the noontime sun,>The tough, sandy section of trail. but eventually we made it back up to the canyon rim, and shortly thereafter to the car.
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