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Canyon De Chelly
In mid-May I met a few artists down in Canyon De Chelly National Monument in North Eastern Arizona. Cody Delong, Susie Hyer, Rita Cirillo, Carl Ortman and I. It was a week of great painting, night-time chats, and fantastic company. It’s about a seven hour drive from Salida, CO to the Navojo or ”Din’e” (the people) reservation. The drive was 
absolutely stunning too. I took a route that I had not previously travelled. I went due south to Antonito and over La Manga Pass to Chama (the same pass that the old narrow guage railroad travels). We stopped in Chama and 
took a bunch of pics of the historic railroad yard there. In retrospect, it would have been nice to set up the easels, but alas, we were on a mission to get to the Canyon!
One of the nicest things about going to Canyon De Chelly is the free camping at Cottonwood campground at the mouth of the Canyon. I think the whole week costed us only about $300 a piece and we went out to dinner and lunch a few times in the nearby town of Chinle. Here’s a painting from the campsite at sunrise:
The sunsets were amazing:
I painted from this location: 
This:
Because you have to hire a Navajo guide to go down in to the canyon, we painted a lot from the rim and tributary canyons:
We did end up hiring a guide to take us up the canyon which was incredible:
On the way back we went North in to Utah and Carl Ortman, Susie Hyer, and I decided to make a quick trip to Natural Bridges National Monument:
Then on the tail-end of the trip, as we drove across the uncompagre plateau, Carl and I saw this and had to pull over and paint it:
3 Responses to “Canyon De Chelly”
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I read a few topics. I respect your work and added blog to favorites.
I really like your blog and i respect your work. I’ll be a frequent visitor.
Beautiful work, Joshua, and sounds like you had a memorable trip. Wish I could have made it – maybe next time! I’ve been down there once before to hike and it was great.