We got up early and created a little Easter chocolate hunt for Zaria and Freya in the room shared by me, Oksy and James, complete with little clues (partly disrupted when our room was cleaned and tidied unfortunately, but still do-able). Then Kate, James, Oksy and I drove down the road a few hundred metres to the riding stable, leaving Chidi to look after the girls and supervise their hunt. Here we discovered Terrell saddling our horses while Justin Tso the owner, drove in a moment later. Terrel and I went up to the Visitor Centre to do our permit (this is all Navajo reservation territory). As we got back, we got into a big truck to go to the top of Twin Trails well up the canyon. We planned to ride down into the canyon and then ride along it to the mouth (estimated time 5.5 hours which daunted me as I have never ridden a horse). My horse was called Princess and she was generally quite amenable to having an incompetent sack of potatoes on her back. We rode part of the way into the canyon, and then led, or had our horses led to the bottom when it became too precipitous for us. This was nothing short of spectacular. Once at the bottom of the canyon there were no more ups and downs, though many places where we forded the river aka "Chinle Wash". Apart from the dramatic rocks, deep ravines, geological marvels in themselves, there are many instances of rock art from the various inhabitants of this canyon: archaic peoples (earlier than 200BC), Basketmaker peoples (c. 200-700AD), Pueblo or Anasazi (750-1300AD), Hopi (1300-1600AD) and finally the Navajo (1700-). Apart from rock art, there are ruins of buildings constructed by the Anasazi. These early people came and went - no-one knows from where they came or what happened to them - all we have are these traces of their life in the canyon.
Much of the upper part of the canyon is inaccessible except on foot or horseback, so the early part of our trip was perhaps the most unique part. As we got further down, we came across parties of visitors in jeeps - it looked quite fun as they splashed through the river at various points up to Antelope House overlook. However we felt superior as we steered our horses aside to let them by! We stopped at the Antelope House site, and had our sandwiches and a very, very welcome cup of coffee - we had dressed as warmly as we could, but in places it was bitterly, bitterly cold, with a freezing wind that must have blown straight from Aspen Colorado! The whole trail took us 6 hours from start to finish, and we dismounted our horses cold and a bit sore, but wholly thrilled. We have all warmed up now, and Chidi is off trekking on foot, equipped with the warm weather clothing we should have taken: my thermal undersweater, woolly hat and gloves, and Oksy's spare fleece! He should be back around 6:30pm.
After warming up with cups of gratis coffee supplied in the Lodge foyer, we've had a look at the gift shop, especially the gorgeous, but extremely expensive rugs, and now we are about to take the party for something to eat. More later, probably when we get back to Tucson tomorrow evening after a long drive.
PS; Chidi back at about 7:00 pm - he trekked with Terrell up the Canyon from Twin Trails and enjoyed it thoroughly.
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