Flashback-Summer 2000 in Northern Arizona

During June 2000, I was fortunate to lay my eyes on an incredible sight.  Words alone really cannot describe the awesome wonder of this place.  I was one of several adults who volunteered to chaperone a group of high school age kids from our local church…my daughter Lindsey made that trip as well…..as you can see above.

We spent a week on the Navaho Nation Reservation at a forlorn, dry place called Ganado.  Many years ago, the Presbyterian church built a school and a hospital there.  Compared to the midwest, a couple of things really stood out in my mind.  First, there is precious little of anything colored green in the natural world of northern Arizona.  Everything in this arid, high desert is a shade of brown.  Secondly, the distances between towns is enormous.  To go anywhere at all, you’d better be prepared to do some travelling.  It seemed there were innumerable places where we would come over a rise in the highway and see nothing but the road stretched in a straight line ahead of us for 15 or 20 miles like a ribbon.

We worked pretty hard in the heat that week painting dwellings, cutting brush, and doing a variety of other miscellaneous maintenance type stuff on "the res".  We were shown Fluted Rock, a Navaho "holy mountain" by a wonderful Christian Navaho couple.  To this day, life is hard on the reservation and only around 15% of the native Navaho Indians are Christian.  Most still hold on to the ancient religious customs.

The last day of our week, we rose very early…5am or so…and made the 4 hour drive to the place you see above.  We were blessed to spend a few precious hours at this incredible place.  The grandeur, the immense size, the colors….etc…etc…were and still are indescribable. 

I think we gained a much greater appreciation for all we have here in our cushy homes with air conditioning, green grass and shade trees in the yard, having visited Northern Arizona.  I’m very glad I was able to experience it with my daughter.

Side note:  Lindsey is expecting her first child…our first grand-child….in March.  We found out this week via ultra-sound that her unborn child is a little girl.  I hope it has red hair like her mother!!!