TSEGI Canyon de Chelly

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     This place always seems to have some kind of spiritual connection for me. It can be just certain feelings or images in my mind, or one time I got really ill in the middle of a painting and it took a couple days in the campsite to recover. It is a beautiful and enchanting valley with a long and dramatic history. There were wars in the canyon between the Indians and American Cavalry. The Indians were sent to Oklahoma and then brought back again. You must have a guide with you to go down into the Canyon and he must own property down there. There are also old 6 wheel drive Trucks that take groups of people for tours. They have to know where to drive because of the quick sand.
     The river used to take a little different path every year to erode the bottom of the canyon in more of a flat manner. The Army cane in a planted 100s of Cottonwood trees to "stop the erosion". What it ended up doing was to cause the river to erode huge ditches making it very difficult for the inhabitants to navigate down there with their vehicles. The trees all turn colors in the Autumn causing the bottom of the canyon to "glow" when you are down there. The yellow trees light up against the purple canyon walls creating a gorgeous and wonderful marriage of light and color.