Date:         Tue, 9 Mar 1999 21:58:49 -0700
Reply-To:     Kent Christensen <lkchris@USWEST.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Kent Christensen <lkchris@USWEST.NET>
Subject:      Re: Advice from the Southwest
Comments: To: ianc@UVIC.CA
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Try not to miss

Canyon de Chelly - http://www.nps.gov/cach/
or
Chaco Canyon - http://www.nps.gov/chcu/

Either one will take some time so you may not be able to do
both in one trip.  Canyon de Chelly can be viewed from the
rims (paved roads) or you can (must) (could a couple years
ago) hire a guide and drive in.  4WD is required to do
that--don't know if they recognize Synchros.  (You can take
the tour in as well--you'll be sitting on the back of an
apparently Korean conflict-era military flatbed truck known
as the "shake and bake.")  Roads at Chaco will be OK barring
bad weather.  Of course Moab, UT is on your path too, but
these places are "cooler" IMHO.  There are lots more web
search results available on both places.  If you go to
Chinle, Arizona, i.e. Canyon de Chelly, don't be what I
witnessed one time: young, blond, female, scantily dressed,
drunk, in the grocery store asking loudly where the beer
is--no beer on the reservation; locals mostly dress
conservatively; very few blondes in town, folks don't speak
loudly.  Don't recommend camping out in Chinle--that's all
you can do at Chaco.  Last time I was in Chinle stayed at
the Holiday Inn--seemed most other guests were from France.
There is virtually no local culture visible at Chaco--you'll
be surrounded by it in Chinle.

BTW, Salt Lake city was entirely road construction last
July--looked like a long-term project.

Kent Christensen
Albuquerque
'81 Vanagon
'89 RR