Craig's blog

This morning we met our jeep driver at the top of the “White House trail” down to Canyon de Chelly. It turns out he was driving a Jeep Cherokee which really can’t hold him and 6 of us. I had told him we had 6, but somehow he showed up with this. We decided to pile two kids in the back and make the best of it. He took us into the canyon and it turns out he actually grew up in the canyon and still has land that he tends there. It was great to see the canyon through a resident’s eyes. We learned a lot. He then dropped us at the bottom of the 1.5 mile trail up. I asked him how long it would take his kids (roughly the same age as ours) to climb the trail. He said 15 minutes. We tried to use that as incentive, but sadly we still had to endure the complaining through much of the hike (although not really from Kelly and Maddie).

We then went back to camp, made and ate lunch and packed and hitched up. We then drove backroads (minor highways) through Arizona (mostly on the Navajo reservation) to Lake Powell where we’re now going to stay put for four nights. Tonight we bbq’d some chicken and then walked down to the lake where the girls went for a twilight swim (it was still 85 degrees). We plan to rent a speedboat for playing on the water and exploring the lake tomorrow.

I've put some new pictures and some captions in the Grand Canyon, Santa Fe and Taos sections (and now there is a Canyon de Chelly section): http://carlsonfun.smugmug.com/Travel/2010-Southwest-Camping-Trip