Epiphany 2.0

In May of 2005 I traveled to Canyon de Chelly in Arizona in order to do research on a forthcoming novel. This trip was made possible thanks in large part to the Speculative Literature Foundation’s Travel Grant, for which I was honored to be the 2004 recipient.

Originally I intended to go to Monument Valley in Utah, but then in the course of my pre-trip research I heard about Canyon de Chelly and changed my plans. Since the novel I was working on at the time (Dreamseed) revolved around a monument-building culture, Canyon de Chelly seemed to be the closest analogue to the mighty Toltec, Aztec, Mayan, and Incan empires of South America. At some point I’d like to pay a visit down there (specifically Machu Picchu), and also Egypt, but those trips will have to wait until I can win a bigger grant.

Why Canyon de Chelly? Well, the canyon has been inhabited for the better part of 5000 years, by a race of people about whom little is known. They are generally referred to as the “ancestral Puebloans”, or the Anasazi, or “those who came before” if you prefer the local term. They inhabited the canyon, building all sorts of pueblo-style villages and towns and thriving until, for unknown reasons, their society collapsed. Many historians assume this was due to a combination of drought and famine caused by farming techniques which, over time, washed away much of the canyon’s topsoil. There’s some speculation that religious strife was a factor, as “dangerous ideas” from the south caused conflict in the population. Either way, after the Anasazi left, Hopi and Pueblo people moved into the canyon, though they too left in the 1800s when Spaniards, more famine, and pressure from the Navajo and Apache drove them out.

Nowadays the canyon is located within the Navajo nation. Though the canyon isn’t historically theirs, the Navajo have tried to be good caretakers of the site, since its spiritual and historical value is obvious to anyone who comes here.

That’s because, although the ancestral Puebloans never built the kinds of monuments that have made other ancient civilizations famous (e.g., the pyramids of South America), they didn’t really need to. Canyon de Chelly is such a natural wonder that frankly, nothing human hands have ever built could top it.

So herein follows an account of my trip. Note: All of these travelogue entries were written during the trip, back in 2005.