Canyon de Chelly
OK this may come off as a rant. But I was very put off by our brief visit to CdC. We got there mid-afternoon and had time to drive the rim drive and hike a couple trails. Unlike every other National Park that I can think of, there was virtually no signage. Can you recall walking out to a viewpoint in a NP and seeing not one sign telling you what you were looking at? Me neither.
For example the Massacre Cave, hiked out the trail looked down into the canyon...ah where is the cave?? Why is it named Massacre Cave? What happened there. You'll never find out at the turnoff and trail. We did finally hike much further down the trail and finally saw a shallow overhang that might be called a cave, was that it? We'll never know.
The only explanation I can see for this is that the locals are trying to force you to buy one of their expensive tours. Shame on the NPS for going along with this scheme.
A day later we stopped at Hubbell Trading Post, all the rangers were locals. Nothing wrong with that except that they for the most part seemed to know nothing about the displays. I asked a couple of them what the farm equipment displayed did, they had no idea. Looked in the barn, there were a couple of youngish teens in Ranger uniforms lounging about on the hay bales. I had no idea that maybe a 14 or 15 year old could get a job as a uniformed ranger in the NPS.
For example the Massacre Cave, hiked out the trail looked down into the canyon...ah where is the cave?? Why is it named Massacre Cave? What happened there. You'll never find out at the turnoff and trail. We did finally hike much further down the trail and finally saw a shallow overhang that might be called a cave, was that it? We'll never know.
The only explanation I can see for this is that the locals are trying to force you to buy one of their expensive tours. Shame on the NPS for going along with this scheme.
A day later we stopped at Hubbell Trading Post, all the rangers were locals. Nothing wrong with that except that they for the most part seemed to know nothing about the displays. I asked a couple of them what the farm equipment displayed did, they had no idea. Looked in the barn, there were a couple of youngish teens in Ranger uniforms lounging about on the hay bales. I had no idea that maybe a 14 or 15 year old could get a job as a uniformed ranger in the NPS.
