Joan and I love this time of the year for canyon country. We’ll see some well-known favorites with few people and hike to some sites new to us.
![](https://i0.wp.com/live.staticflickr.com/65535/50698986921_6af104a1d9_b.jpg?resize=860%2C574&ssl=1)
A cliff dwelling with a T-shaped door; something well-known in the Chaco area.
It also means camping vs. backpacking many times, too.
These shorter canyons lend themselves well to winter day hikes. It’s not a time for mileage spent covering distance, but rather time spent in a place overall.
Seeing what we see.
And enjoying the landscape.
And the light never fails to make some interesting landscapes this time of the year.
![](https://i0.wp.com/live.staticflickr.com/65535/50698239773_860e0209e9_b.jpg?resize=860%2C574&ssl=1)
We have some suspicions about what might happen with this spiral in a couple of weeks.
And though we’ll never know the meaning for some of these images, some seem rather familiar even in our modern times.
We could live here twenty-years and never run out of things to see, immerse ourselves in more, and never run out of new places to learn about.
![](https://i0.wp.com/live.staticflickr.com/65535/50699066907_364a21e0f9_b.jpg?resize=860%2C574&ssl=1)
A kiva.
Want to learn more about this area and concepts? Native Power Rangers on Instagram is an account run by an NPS archeologist who is a member of the Dine’ and contributions from others. Interesting reading!
View this post on Instagram
Calling historically accepted terms racist is a bit over the top. Racism denotes some form of hatred. While re-education sounds a bit Orwellian there should be some effort especially within the NPS to let us know the deeper meaning of these terms and culture. I consider myself “re-educated”, thanks for sharing !
People used “dago” and “swarthy” to describe my ancestors not long ago as acceptable language. And we changed.