PETFO: Canyon del Muerto.

  Saturday we had a date with Dezwood Yazzie's Arizona Jeep Tours to go into the del Muerto side for a few hours.  I'd asked for Sylvia Watchman and gotten her.  But first....the classic breakfast at the Thunderbird Cafe.  USED to be the Thunderbird Lodge as well, (as God intended), but now that's been re-named Sacred Canyon Lodge.  

  The cafe used to be famous for using sheep oil for cooking, leaving patrons with a faint, back-of-the-nose sensation all day.  As far as I could tell they have gone canola like everyone else.  Pretty good breakfast.  Then seven of us stuffed into an old Suburban and away we went, into the canyon.

A four-square breakfast is just what a man needs.

Conditions were nice and moist in the Canyon.  Plenty of surface water, but not too much.  They ran out of money for cutting the invasive species in the canyon.  Too bad.  They really opened it up in some areas.  Canyon has turned into a brush-choked slot over the years.

An old Ansel subject.

Cat Rock.

We walked through several sections, including the grand overhanging gallery, Martini Rock.

Got out the Hasselblad and shot a bit.

Several places had been fenced off, including Baby Pee trail and the shaman's cave.  That's probably the future.  I'd like to take my camera up the Baby Pee.  Still might. 

Over and over.

A quick layout by the girls.

Katie along the way.

Bunny Man, up past Blue Bull cave.

Tourists behind Bunny Man flake.

Calculating cave sheep capacity.

Some of my favorite Cottonwoods in the world in the flat past Blue Bull Cave.

Walking around inside this incredible artwork, seeing new things, old favorites, changes that have happened.  Makes for a very internally seismic experience.

More hiking down through an especially beautiful spot.

Sylvia shows us how to prepare and eat Prickly Pear.  Now we know.

Sylvia was born at Standing Cow Ruin.  I surprised her with a photo.

Antelope Ruin stripes.

Old stone friend.

  No sadder feeling than bumping along the track out of Canyon de Chelly after a full day inside not knowing when you might be back.  We rolled out, paid the bill and headed back to the Best Western for a late meal at the Junction.  I'd pulled out the 5X7 three times.

PETFO: Up to Canyon de Chelly.

  A change of scene as some friends flew in to meet us at Hubbell Trading Post and head North to Canyon de Chelly.  I'd chipped away at a few images, worked the 5X7 a bit, foot-walked around the desert, trapped mice, made coffee, watched light, binoc-ed up into the midnight Milky Way and begun to get a taste of the desert...but I hadn't really gotten traction yet.  Trying to find the right place to put my feet, if that makes sense.

  Friday morning, up the road to Hubbell we went.

  AIR at Hubbell last Spring.  A terrific two weeks though solo.  Katie didn't come.  I'm quite attached to the place.

  I've gotten used to it: that once I leave Texas, I never know what time it is.  New Mexico is an hour earlier than Tyler.  Arizona, in the Navajo Nation, observes Daylight Saving's time.  The rest of Arizona doesn't.  At the casita on the mesa at PETFO, your iphone would change time depending on where you were.  The North side of the mesa picked up reservation towers and went roaming.  Move around a peak to the South and you were off Daylight Savings on the tower from Holbrook.  The computer would have one time, the iphones another, the digital clock on the bedside table differed and the clock in the 4-Runner kept Texas time.  Not that it mattered much, as we were on the celestial clock, but I did begin every phone conversation to friends near and far by saying: "What time do YOU think it is?

Upstairs haybarn door at the Hubbell Trading Post.

Edison Eskeets, the Trader at the Hubbell lays out the rug lore.

In the Hubbell Residence.  They knew the importance of art and artists and have an incredible collection.  Every politician and important businessman that was in the territory came by to kiss the ring of Don Lorenzo Hubbell.

The residence kitchen.

  Fed the chicken sisters, climbed into the barn talked to the sheep and checked my local favorites.  Everything changes a little, all the time, so I could see it.  Hubbell has suspended AIRs but ought to be back in business next year.  It's a pretty good gig.

  At Chinle we were staying at the Best Western, partly because it is pretty good and partly because the Junction Restaurant is the best place to eat for a few hundred miles in any direction.  Once we were all in, off the White House trail we went.

  

Since 1972 I've packed up and down this trail.  It leaves me wide-eyed and visually staggered every time.   Never made the walk without a major fi;m camera...until today.

Trailside.  This is one of the most beautiful and spectacular trails in the Southwest.  Comparable but more human-scaled than the Mist Trail at Yosemite or Kaibab off the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.  It's one of the few places you can enter the canyon without a guide.

Always catches my eye and has accumulated some sheet film over the years, but never printed.

Coming out of the tunnel at trail bottom.

Anasazi route up the rocks.

Canyon de Chelly system like the Louvre: A masterpiece around every corner.

Sam and Robert McKinney along the wall.

Root-sitting in slack-jawed amazement at White House.

White House.

Katie and I under an old friend and nemesis.  Never gotten a satisfying print of this shape, but always good to see it.

White House in last light.  Just a bare remnant of the magnificent structure that once stood here.  The Park Service keeps moving the fence out and trying to save what is left.  The wash has taken most of it.  When I first came here you could walk around in the lower ruin.  The wash has channelled itself, or the Park Service cut it deeper, on the far side of the canyon.  It used to be a wide and braided flow.  One Spring break, I had to take off my shoes, roll up my pants and wade the six-inch-deep water breaking ice with my bare feet while carrying my girlfriend piggy back along with all our gear.  Now there is a gorge and a bridge.

   Wish I'd made a 5X7 negative of that last late October light on White House.

Last light in the canyon.

  

The last bit as we switchback out way out.

Creative software running in the background.  Waiting for the scenery to start cracking open to see what else is possible.  As I was standing in the labyrinth at PETFO, underneath the mountain crust, cracking open cast owl pellets to examine little bones and skulls inside I had the feeling that I was just about to learn something new.

PETFO: Pintura Peak.

A break in the weather, clear skies, no wind....not as interesting light but desert getting dry below.  We had a nine-rainbow day driving into the park and was hoping for that to continue, but the clouds blocked the sun early and late on the previous days at all the critical moments.

Katie enjoying coffee on demand.

Beetle doing patio handstands.  We saw him coming and going a lot, but never figured where he was coming or going from.  He was always good for a handstand.  It's probably a prelude to spraying some noxious substance.

Near Lacey Point with Pintura Peak at far left horizon.  Beautiful slope in front of it descending to desert.

Like the 60s: hard to get high enough...or get enough lens.

Something like that.  Separate art from scenery.

Previewing on iphone.  I've got the various lens lengths noted on the zoom function, so I can use it like electronic polaroid.

Katie touristing into labyrinth.  One trip was plenty but I wanted her to know what I was talking about. Rubble underfoot pretty loose and hard to pick the best way in.  Plus it's got a "dim" mood inside, even on sunny days.

There's an eagle nest hanging out of the crack.  About four feet deep.  I circumnavigated the peak hugging the wall at the top of the talus slope.  The wall overhangs so I saw the bone-scatter below but didn't actually see it until I worked off to the side.  Park biologist didn't have this nest site on his list.  He and assistant hiked out to see it the next day.  You could actually access the nest site from inside, (if determined), so it had to be on Paleo-indian list.  Park Ranger told me they had a Raven nest site dated at over 200 years near Puerco Pueblo. 

Shadow along the escarpment.

Substantial cave behind a big block that sheared off the escarpment.  At the threshold you realize you are standing on rubble blocking a much lower entrance.  Flat dirt floor about ten feet down.  I could chimney in....but pretty sporty.  Cave extends in about 40 feet then turns a corner.  Looks big.  Needs a nice single step cut anasazi style ladder if you are going to use it.  I'm sure it's bat heaven.

Under edge of the volcanic escarpment.  Just a grey-phase Screech Owl for company.  Always a question as to whether a route will "go," especially wagging a Zone VI bag of gear and a tripod.  This did, barely, but not a level spot or a decent place to put foot anywhere.  Had fairly sticky boots.  Didn't want to leave much sign.

Cave back in corner shadow.  This bench looks like perfect bighorn or deer laager, but the more I looked the more it felt like ambush site for big cats.  Some deer sign, but I wouldn't drouse off in there if I was big and edible and there was even a outside chance of a local cougar.

Working the 5X7 with 450mm.  Lots to shoot.....at scenery level.  If I catch myself panning around, I know there isn't really a shot.  Does good to warm up by setting up and looking, but saved film.

Eagle nest blocking the crack.

Among the standing flakes shearing off the escarpment.

Always an eye for the grey "tube" sections like the one in the top left.   Very similar to the Dot at Shiprock.  I finally was able to use a couple, but most were too high or low like this one.  In sunlight they are usually disguised.  There was a relative of this one far below on the slope that looked dramatic, but I didn't make the climb.

Packing out of the desert across a traverse that is getting more familiar.

Two deer on the skyline making for a seep/leak out of the park water system on top of the mesa.  The park biologist has a camera set there.  Deer, dove, coyote, porcupine, bobcats, owls using it.

Katie soaking up late light.

  Taking me a while to get my toes dug into the desert, but determined to give it enough time.  You could shoot through the holders every day at pretty good compositions.  Missed a real light show in the clouds when I was on one side of the mesa waiting on clouds and an outrageous Jesus moment happened on the other side.  Sorry I missed it.