Queues are a Way of Life

The road to Many Farms (that is the name of a reasonably sized town) was pretty, with a canyon wall on one side, and the occasional spikey rocks to remind you that it is not too far to Monument Valley.

Canyon de Chelly includes another group of Anazasi ledge dwellings - these were a bit above the valley, rather than being a bit below the Mesa. There are quite a few of them, and they are bigger than the ones at Mesa Verde. One ledge is called Massacre ledge, as over 100 Navajo were killed there by a group of spaniards.

I saw pectoglyphs there and at the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest National Parks, which I went to later. The Painted Desert is in an enormous number of colours. The early settlers must have had a huge dilemma in all the canyon lands. Taking their wagon trains through the valleys would give them a water source, but it would be much easier to travel along the mesas.

On my way through the park, they were fixing the cracks in the bitumen, so there was a long section which was only one lane. Then when I got to Holbrook, we waited on a bridge for a train, that is possibly the second longest I have ever seen, go through. It finally did, and we started again. However, I only made it as far as the boom gate before the one coming the other way came through. It was shorter, and I counted 47 carriages!