Canyon De Chelly

The last few days I was in Chinle. I have been to Chinle many times but have only been inside Canyon De Chelly once before. Penny and I went a few years ago. It was raining and November. It was freezing. We were in the open back of a tour truck. It was beautiful and miserable at the same time. Several of us from work were in Chinle to do a class for the hospital there. The guy who was over the IT there volunteered to take us into the canyon after class. His family have farmed inside the canyon for generations. You can only go inside the canyon with a native "guide". We had two four wheel drive vehicles that 13 of us were in. You needed to have pretty good clearance, even so folks get stuck all the time or even lose their vehicle to floods etc.
Mike and his wife, Yulinda were very kind. We started off at 5:30pm and didn't come out until 9 PM. It was cool to see it through their eyes, as the place where their ancestors had lived, where his grandmother had herded sheep as a child, etc. There were amazing Anasazi trails and ruins. They took us to their land where they have fruit trees. They told us about the White Monster that lives in the canyon. They very much believe in it, it sounds just like Big Foot. They said it was real and Mike's grandmother saw it.
When we left the full moon had risen over the canyon. I don't think I would want to be in there by myself in the dark. It was very dark and there had been so many massacres , etc. I think it would just be a bit scary to be there. But a cool thing to have done!