Tad Gielow Photography

Great Week At: The Nature Of Poetry 2012

Great Week At The Nature Of Poetry 2012

Spending a week in Canyon De Chelly immersed in home and culture of the Diné(Navajo) people can be a transforming experience for many people. This years The Nature Of Poetry: Exploring The Beautyway was week of poem making, story telling, photographing, camping, hiking, and ancient trail climbing.  For the first two days we had to contend with extremely high winds which made setting up tents, and keeping them up, a real challenge.  We stayed on land cared for by my close friends and our guides, Jon and Lupita McClanahan.    

When the wind subsided on the third day, we took a hike to Box Canyon, a private small side canyon by Junction Ruin(at the intersection of Canyon De Chelly and Canyon Del Muerto) that has a lot of great petroglyphs and pictographs amongst the ancient ruins.

There were also many Pear Cactus blooms around, most of them are yellow, some are red,

but this one was a lime green and waiting for bees to fly in, get some nectar, and then carry pollen away to other blooms.

While we in Box Canyon we saw a number of emergency vehicles pass by, moving as quickly as possible in the sand wash that is the canyon floor.   We later learned of a tragic accident in which a tour truck carrying thirteen passengers lost steering control and rolled down an embankment.  To make matters worse, the accident was at least ten miles into Canyon Del Muerto which complicated the rescue efforts.   One of the passengers shared his terrifying experience here.

The following day, our group make the trek up and down the Yeibichei trail.

This ancient trail has hundreds of foot steps and hand holds chipped out of the sandstone that is used to get from the canyon floor to the mesa three hundred feet above.  As a child, Lupita would make the trek up and down this trail multiple times a day to tend to the sheep and goats that were kept on the mesa.  At the top of the trail is a stone birthing hogan(an eight sided home build from cedar logs and mud, or in this case, stone and logs) used many years ago by Diné women.  When in labor, they would climb the trail as an aid in the process and give birth in the hogan.

Later in the week we took a long drive up Canyon De Chelly to Spider Rock, the spirtual center of the Diné people. 

This monolith is over seven hundred feet tall and the surrounding canyon walls are over a thousand feet high.

In the midst of this grandeur I found a small piece of cottonwood tree bark with some colorful lichen.  On the way back to camp we stopped at Window Rock, scrambled up the steep trail, and enjoyed the view down Canyon(the photo at the top of the post).   

Later in the week, some the group helped Lupita plant the corn field.  The corn will be ready for harvest in September.

As our wonderful week came to a close, we all posed for a picture under Dog Rock, before heading home.

For one of our group, home is in Germany and this was her first visit to the United States.

For more photographs of Canyon De Chelly in different times of year, please visit my online portfolio.

Fall Colors Of Canyon De Chelly Workshop 2010

Fall Colors Of Canyon De Chelly Workshop 2010

I just got home after leading my first photography workshop in one of my favorite places in the southwestern United States, Canyon De Chelly National Monument in Arizona. On the two day drive from Los Angeles it looked like weather was going to present a challenge as it rained most of the way.

The rain was very heavy when we arrived in Chinle, Arizona, which created waterfalls everywhere as the water flowed from the mesa into the canyon.

With all the rain, access to the Canyon by vehicle was not possible, so the workshop schedule needed to change significantly. We spent two days visiting and exploring the numerous overlooks into the Canyon, which we had almost to ourselves because there are so few visitors at this time of year.

 

I made the two photos above in the morning from the White House Ruins overlook, the top one looking northwest and down canyon back toward the town of Chinle, and the next one looking easterly and up canyon.

 

The following afternoon we made our way over the Mummy Cave overlook and hiked along the rim of the canyon to an area I had found while exploring years before.   The spot is a shear cliff of about five hundred feet where the river and trees snake along the canyon floor.

The heavy cloud cover opened up in a few spots providing some stunning sunlight to illuminate the cottonwood trees.

As sunset neared we ventured over to the Antelope Ruin overlook where we were treated to the magnificent sunset shown at the top of the post.

The weather cleared enough on the third day allowing us to take a great hike down an old trail, called Bear Trail, into Canyon Del Muerto.  We were the only people in the canyon along with a couple of families tending to their fields and except for the birds and the occasional breeze rustling the trees, the canyon was silent.

We stopped for lunch at the home of our guides, Jon and Lupita McClanahan. I met Jon and Lupita over ten years ago and they have become great friends through the many visits I have made to their home in the Canyon.  On their land are some wonderful petroglyphs that I have been trying to photograph for years.   With the numerous clouds providing some nice diffuse light I was able to capture one of my favorite pieces of rock art depicting people ascend the nearby Yeibeichai trail.

After lunch we continued our hike and with the river flowing nicely, we took off our shoes, rolled up our pant legs, and enjoyed a long walk in the water. Along the way we stopped to photograph some gorgeous pictographs.