Things to do nearCanyon de Chelly National Monument

Canyon de Chelly National Monument sits within the Navajo Nation in northeastern Arizona, administered jointly by the National Park Service and the Navajo Nation. The canyon system encompasses three main gorges carved by the Chinle Wash and its tributaries, their walls rising as high as 1,000 feet from the sandy floor. This is one of the longest continuously inhabited landscapes in North America, with evidence of human settlement stretching back to the Archaic period.

The monument's most iconic sight is the White House Ruin, an Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwelling tucked into a natural alcove partway up the canyon wall. The 2.5-mile round-trip White House Ruin Trail is the only path visitors may walk without a Navajo guide, offering a rare chance to stand close to structures built around 1,000 years ago. Guided jeep tours and guided tours on horseback reveal deeper reaches of the canyon, including Spider Rock, an 800-foot sandstone spire sacred in Navajo tradition.

The surrounding region rewards further exploration. Nearby Monument Valley Tribal Park offers another window into the Colorado Plateau's extraordinary geology and Navajo culture, roughly two hours to the south.

Canyon de Chelly is a place where geology, archaeology, and living culture overlap in ways found almost nowhere else, making it one of the most meaningful destinations in the American Southwest.