After reading about the ruins at Navajo National Monument on the Arizona Highways home page last year, I decided that I must visit the park. While it took me a year to finally get there, this is a trip that you shouldn't put off! It was a fascinating visit to some incredible ruins in a lovely part of the country.
In this day and age of highspeed travel, access to a tremendous amount of media and the idea that the only thing worth seeing is the biggest or the best, it is places like Keet Seel that often get overlooked. In many ways this is a good thing. It means that the road to the ruins isn't paved, you don't fight thousands of windshield tourists to see the place and your view hasn't been influenced by hundreds of photos that have been published in glossy travel magazines. If you are interested in working to see the ruins, then this one is worth the trip.
While I enjoy visiting many of the U.S. National Parks, I am getting rather disillusioned with all the development that has occurred. Try to "experience" Zion or Yosemite without fighting traffic, listening to motors whine, finding litter everywhere and it means that you go during the off season and hike one of the less popular trails. That's OK, I have nothing against hiking and encourage people to get out of their cars and walk. However, just the hassle of trying to park or drive through some of our parks has become a nightmare. And quiet is a thing of the past.
As an avid bicycle tourist, I enjoy visiting parks by bicycle. If you can find a park that has wide shoulders on the road and manage to dodge the rented RVs that are piloted by people who often have trouble judging the width of the vehicle, then you might have a pleasant vacation. But breathing the fumes of internal combustion engines and listening to the constant background noise they produce can really detract from a vacation in a hurry! (I had this lesson driven home many times during a 17 day canoe trip down the Colorado River. When those huge J-rigs came by packed with tourists, we ended up breathing the exhaust fumes for 15-20 minutes after they passed. ) The solution for those of us who actually want to experience nature on our vacations is to visit places like Navajo National Monument.
This park tucked in the NW corner of Arizona is a gem. You'll have to hike to really experience the park but it is worth the time and effort to visit. The campground is free and is well maintained. The Visitor's Center is nicely done. There are a couple of short hikes near the Visitor's Center that allow you to see the flora of the area as well as an overlook of Betatakin ruins. Bring plenty of food as the nearest facilities are 9 miles away. Remember that the park is at 7300 feet. Take some time to acclimatize.
Tour the museum and buy some books. Read them!! Take the short hikes. Learn the plants. Look at the geology. Watch the video. Pay attention. Learn something as it will help you understand the park and appreciate what you are seeing. I don't know whether it is better to see Betatakin ruins first or Keet Seel. While it probably doesn't matter much, I would venture a guess that it matters some. I think that a lot of what people believe to be true is dependent upon the order that they learn things. We visited Keet Seel first and had a chance to see a larger, more intact ruin with a small group of people. That allowed time to really look at the construction, the materials, the enclosure and ask lots of questions. However, Betatakin is a nice ruin and our ranger had a very good talk prepared.
The hike out to Keet Seel (pronounced "Kits 'eel" by our Navajo guide) is 8.5 miles one way. The trail is actually quite easy to follow and follows the arroyo for many miles. The most difficult aspect of the trip is that you have to carry all the water you will need - and water weighs a lot! Don't let that put you off as this trip is worth the effort.
Since the ruins are only open from Memorial Day through Labor Day and the rainy season is July through September, I opted for a permit as close to Memorial Day as possible. But since I didn't want to fight crowds, I decided that a weekday was best. It worked out perfectly, we were the only visitors that day and the weather was fine. Talk about perfect!
You have to attend an orientation before you can hike to the ruins, basically a slide show that shows you the trail you will be following. It was a good idea as each of us remembered different landmarks and except for my having trouble getting to the parking lot(!), the trip went without a hitch.
We loaded up our packs and headed out. The canyons you traverse are typical of this part of Northern Arizona. Wide floors and steep cliffs of lovely Navajo sandstone. This is my kind of scenery. I could spend days just absorbing the atmosphere. We stashed water for our return trip. (No point in carrying extra weight.) The trail followed the canyon floor except a few spots where there was a danger of flashfloods or quicksand. I would like to experience quicksand but not with a pack on, so I took the high road in spite of the sand.
We noticed some free ranging cattle along the stream and when we were about half-way to the ruins we heard a horn honking. Strange. Is it possible that there was a road on the top of the canyon walls? Unlikely, as the terrain is very rugged. The horn grew louder and I realized that the vehicle was driving *up* the arroyo and the honking was to herd the cattle! We thought it was rather amusing as we had been carefully dodging the cattle in case they didn't like hikers. Seems like they are quite used to people. (Hey, I'm from the city - what do I know about cattle??)
We continued our hike. There were a couple of waterfalls that had to be circumvented. Nothing major and a nice view from the top. There was water in the stream and the cooling spray was welcomed. Many of the plants were flowering along the trail and I enjoyed the contrast between the rocks and the flowers.
We reached the campground around 2:30 and sat in the shade of the trees to eat lunch and cool off. We discovered later that the trees harbored thousands of caterpillars who spent the evening dropping out of the trees and onto whatever was below. We quickly moved camp out into the open when the day cooled off. (Hiking out the next morning, it was impossible to avoid stepping on caterpillars. Must have been some seasonal hatching.) It was very relaxing in the shade and we were not in much of a hurry to get back on our feet.
The last ranger led tour was at 3:30 p.m. and although we were the only visitors that day we didn't want to keep the ranger waiting too long. When we arrived at the picnic area for our tour, Frederick (the ranger), mentioned that he was getting ready to call to the Visitor's Center to ask if we really were hiking in that day since we had taken so long. Oops!
The tour was great. The ruins looked as if the inhabitants had left months earlier not 700 years ago! There were pottery shards, corn cobs and bits of building material strewn about the site. The walls still were black from soot from the fires. The walls still had the plaster covering them in areas. It was exciting to look around and see the remains of the everyday life of the Anasazi.
We had plenty of time to observe the ruins, ask hundreds of questions and absorb the atmosphere. Finally, Frederick led us back to the picnic area and we talked for a while longer. We reluctantly headed back to our campground.
Dinner was freeze dried food - quite tasty actually. We sat around and talked, watched the stars and enjoyed the solitude of the canyon. I slept out under the stars and fell asleep watching shooting stars.
Morning brought a small herd of inquisitive horses into our camp. They stomped and nighed when they spotted the first sleeping bag. I got up and made coffee while watching the sun slowly light up the canyon walls. We had a perfect view of Keet Seel from our camp. What a terrific way to wake up in the morning!
The others were still asleep so I walked around and looked for petroglyphs on the canyon walls. I didn't venture far since the campground was small and the land around it is Reservation land. Mainly I wanted to get the blood circulating and warm up a bit. It was quite cool until the sun arrived.
As the others began to stir, I made some more coffee and ate my oatmeal breakfast. I actually ran out of coffee! This is a near disaster for me. I had measured out what I thought I would need for the 2 days and now to my horror I discovered that I had erred. Time to get going. Come on, let's hike out! (Just kidding.) No one was in a hurry to start the long hike back to civilization.
Finally, we decided that we couldn't delay any longer. So off we went with packs that were much lighter (since we had drunk a lot of water). We met a family that was coming in for the day - that's a long hike. On the route out we passed a couple more people going in.
We located our stashed water and kept drinking to keep the load light. The walk out seemed easier, perhaps because we weren't watching the clock and we forgot that the worst part was climbing back up the huge sandbank to get out of the canyon.
Soon we saw the obstacle. We had stashed some water at the top of the sand dune and now we were really glad that it was there as it was quite hot in the sun. One step up, a half slide back. Arggg. This wasn't fun. DJ just kept chugging on and the rest of us took our time. Tim's knee was a concern so he paced himself for the climb up. Reaching the water, we sat in the shade of a juniper and drank and ate our snacks. When we finally reached the cars, we had about .5 liters of water between all of us! I'd say we judged that just right.
Back to the campground and a chance to relax and talk about what we had seen. It was a great introduction to hiking and archeology for some of us. The weather was perfect and the lack of crowds made the trip a real gem.