While both are on the current Navajo lands, Chaco and Canyon de Chelly are very different kinds of place both culturally and visually.
Culturally, Chaco is known as one of the main centers of the Ancestral Pueblans (sometimes called the Anasazi). By the fourteenth century, it was abandoned, as were most outlier settlements of this group. The culture extends well into history, many hundreds of years before Chaco.
Even though Canyon de Chelly does have some Ancestral Pueblan artifacts (as do many, many locations throughout the four corners region), it is mainly known as a stronghold and cultural focus of the Navajo, who arrived in the general region as early as 1000AD and continued to thrive there. Historically, Canyon de Chelly is perhaps best known as a highpoint (or lowpoint) in the drive to remove all of the Navajo from their lands, forcing them into the camp at Bosque Redondo, several hundred miles to the south/southeast.
Visually, the two are extremely different. Chaco is located in a broad valley surrounded by eroded hills. By contrast, Canyon de Chelly is a deep and fairly narrow canyon whose red-rock walls extend almost straight up hundreds of feet from the bottom. It is a visual treat, quite apart from its cultural history.
Both are worth a visit, for sure, but for very different reasons.
:)
Lynn
bigfootford wrote:
Too bad you do not have time to do Chaco Canyon... C de C does not hold a candle to Chaco.
http://www.nps.gov/chcu/index.htm
Jim
