Visiting a Piece of History Past with the Castle Keeper Girls

It was a memorable two days.

Nine girls, one boy, along with Russell and I, took the Castle Keeper girls on their end-of-year-outing. A two-day Arizona road trip to places we’ve never seen before.

Taking along our cowgirl apparel.

On the road!

Our first stop was the Petrified Forest. Not a standing forest by any means but one where trees are lying on the ground or even in pieces here and there. Evolutionists say it took millions of years for the trees to become fossilized, (That’s some kind of dating system, don’t you think? lol) but there are creationists that believe it could have happened during Noah’s flood.

There is more petrified wood (trees or parts of trees that are now solid stone) here in this park than anywhere else in the world.

Petrified Wood

 The girls sitting on a large petrified tree and here is the same tree…

but with the “stone roots” showing.

Life always survives in some of the toughest locations. These flowers are growing out of a petrified piece of wood.

These three took the time to become junior park rangers.

Next stop was the Painted Desert.

I would love to see it when the sun is shining – but it wasn’t this day. Instead, we had a gorgeous overcast sky with a stiff breeze…

…which made for some great pictures.

The next morning, bright and early, we headed out for Canyon de Chelly (pronounced Shay). We had horses rented for you cannot tour the canyon unless you are with Navajo guides. The only way to do that is by Jeep or horseback so we chose to take horses.

The girls were quite excited about the horse ride.

…and we were off!

We hadn’t gone too far before one of the horses decided it had to scratch its back in the sand and the rider had to jump off to accommodate her.

But while we’re on this picture, I want you to notice the rider in the back.

That’s my hubby.  And I have a story to tell…

But first, isn’t this the cutest thing? The foal followed its mother the whole way.

Some of the sweetest girls are a part of Castle Keepers. They’re all so special.

But I’m supposed to be telling you a story.

This is my husband, Russell.

He just had a double hernia surgery one-week ago.

After doing some research with Dr. Google, he could see no hindrances to his going on the trail with us, so he decided to join us on our 2 hour horseback ride.

Arriving at the horse rental, he announced that he wanted their oldest, slowest nag.

“Hmmm.”

After a short pause their eyes lit up and they pointed their finger to one lone horse still in its pen and said, “You could ride her. I think she’ll make it.”

???

Sounds encouraging.

The rest of us had spunky horses that we loved. We trotted them, some even did an almost full-out gallop – and the Natives were okay with that.

But Russell’s horse was different.

We never had to wonder where he was, he was always at the back.

Occasionally, we’d hear a “Yee-haw” or a “Let’s go, Betsy” as we sauntered or trotted ahead.

At the beginning of our ride, I was able to take a short video for your enjoyment. It’s raw unedited footage and it’s jumpy but it kind of captures what was happening.

I can speak for all of us, and believe it or not sorta, kinda for even Russell, we all had a great time riding the horses. 🙂

There were petroglphys to be seen.

Oh, be still my heart!

All in a beautiful setting.

We returned to the corrals…and then about 10 minutes later, who should come riding in?  Russell… bringing up the rear.

Since our horse ride was over we decided we would see the rest of the Canyon from the top by car.

I don’t know how the Indians accessed these cliff dwellings. It would have been so difficult.

And here are the same dwellings up close.

Some more dwellings – all on the side of a cliff.

Spider Rock. Isn’t it fantastic?

Three of my sweethearts.

We finished up our time in Canyon de Chelly with the only hike they allow people to do without taking a Navajo guide – a hike to White House Ruins, 2 1/2 miles round-trip.

We arrived and were able to see these beautiful cliff dwellings. Anasazi Indians lived here they think from 1060 A.D. to 1275 A.D.

By this time it was past time to turn our car towards home and we did, although a lot more tired than when we began the day before. Seven hours later we were tucked away in our own cozy beds feeling thankful that we had the opportunity to go on this special outing with such lovely young ladies.

We finished up the Castle Keeper year just in time because the new year (our 3rd year) begins in September!