Back Road Adventure

I am surrounded by magnificent silence and the overwhelming expanse of the Navajo Indian Reservation. Three miles west, the Carrizo Mountains soar above 9,000 feet. Nearby, convoluted sandstone canyons twist in serpentine fashion through an unpopulated land. I know how I got into this boulder-strewn maze, but I'm not sure how I'm going to get out. That puzzle will have to wait. My attention is focused on water dripping from the rear of my vehicle.

Returning from a walking inspection of the dirt track 200 yards ahead, I noticed liquid splashing from the side of the truck onto the jumbled boulders that my map proclaims a graded road. The map is wrong. This is among the worst ground I've ever crossed in an automobile.

To complicate matters, I've passed three unsigned forks where I made my choice solely on the basis of a mental coin toss.

I swing the vehicle's cargo door open, and my emergency drinking water spills out. The upthrusting boulders and erosion-carved ruts have tossed the gallon plastic jugs until the top on one had popped off. The other suffered a puncture.

The jug with the puncture still contains nearly a quart of

TREKKING THE NAVAJO RESERVE: FROM GANADO TO CANYON DE CHELLY AND BEYOND

water. I transfer it to a smaller plastic bottle. That's enough if I have to walk out.

I started this trip just after sunrise at the old Hubbell Trading Post Inear Ganado on a 140-mile back-road route that would take me along the precipitous cliffs of Canyon de Chelly, then over the pine-enveloped Chuska Mountains, and on to Four Corners where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah meet.

Now, at midafternoon, with my remaining water capped and stowed, I take a break, lean against a fender, and contemplate the road already traveled. So far, a nice trek.

The Hubbell Trading Post, developed in 1878 by John Lorenzo Hubbell, was a serene trip back in time. The sprawling complex of stone buildings (now a National Historic Site) exists much as it did in the early days. Under sheltering cottonwoods, darkskinned Navajo families, adorned with turquoise, arrive in pickup trucks to do their shopping.

In the visitors center, exhibits illustrate the trading post's history, and guided tours of Hubbell's home reveal one of the world's finest personal collections of Indian artistry.

From the trading post, I drove east on State Route 264, then north on Navajo Route 27 through valleys bordered by red cliffs. Cattle grazed in the lowlands. Hogans, corrals, and small houses dotted the landscape. Few vehicles used the route.

At a junction, I veered east toward Sawmill on Navajo Route 26, a dirt road that climbs through a forest of ponderosa pine. In a place that offered no signs of habitation, two Navajo women sat under a tree, trading earlymorning gossip.

At the intersection of Navajo Route 7, I turned north onto a gravel road toward Canyon de Chelly National Monument. Descending from a high mesa, the view northeast revealed the blue outline of the Chuska Mountains and billowing clouds above the peaks rain, perhaps.

At the southern limits of Canyon de Chelly, I returned to pavement. Stops at Wild Cherry Canyon and White House overlooks let me absorb the wonder of the 600foot vertical red cliffs and prehistoric rock dwellings in the canyon's shadowed stone alcoves.

If your vehicle is a fourwheel-drive, and you're equip ped for rugged back-road travel, you could continue north to Four Corners. But the routes are signed poorly, when marked at all. And you may find yourself, as I did, on some of the worst tracks I won't call them roads ever experienced.

Near the visitors center at Chinle, I paused for lunch at Thunderbird Lodge, then headed northeast on Navajo Route 64 toward the red sandstone flanks of the Lukachukai and Chuska mountains. A localized thunderstorm was dropping rain into their forested upper canyons.

At the small community of Tsaile, I turned south onto Navajo Route 12, then, after 1.3 miles, went left onto Navajo Route 68,

Back Road Adventure

A well-defined (but unsigned) dirt road that leads into and over the Chuskas. (Many maps do not accurately depict this turnoff.) In places, the thundershower had turned the road's surface to red mud, but the base underneath remained solid. After a few miles of climbing through narrow canyons, I emerged into a magnificent alpine region: narrow valleys, cold mountain streams, and high ridges thick with pine, spruce, and fir. Herds of sheep and goats, attended only by Navajo sheepdogs, grazed in lush meadows. At the highest pass, I moved through the shadow of Roof Butte, a ragged mass of sheer cliffs at 9,784 feet. Then it was down the northern slopes on a washboard road with hairpin turns. Some 20 miles away on a barren New Mexico plateau, Shiprock, the sheer 1,405-foot core of an ancient volcano, could be seen in profile against a clearing sky.

After a descent of nearly 3,000 feet, I passed through the tiny village of Red Rock and arrived at the junction of Navajo routes 33 and 63. There, under a large umbrella, a Navajo family was selling snow cones to raise money for a church project. I purchased one and asked the man about Route 63 going north.

"Bad road," he said. I glanced north up 63. For as far as I could see it was two-lane asphalt with a stripe down the middle. I held up my map to show him how Route 63 is shown as a graded dirt road. He chuckled, shook his head, and repeated, "Bad road. Go around by Shiprock."

I ignored his suggestion. After 10.2 miles the pavement suddenly ended, and my boulevard of boulders began. So, here I am in the middle of Navajo nowhere. I push away from the fender and climb back into the driver's seat. I've bounced, jolted, banged, and bumped nearly seven miles. I figure I have about four more to go.

I skirt precipitous canyon drops, scrape against low-growing juniper branches, tilt precariously on tiered sandstone ledges. After two miles, I'm growing concerned. The route now is going east when it should be going north.

Suddenly, after a rattling nosedive descent into a narrow wash, it all comes to an end. On the other side are undulating red hills and a northbound graded road that could be driven in a limousine. After hitting the pavement of U.S. Route 64, it's 14 miles northwest to my ultimate destination.

Four Corners draws a healthy crowd every summer day, but with the sun moving down on the western horizon, I have no time to tarry. I have a nonguaranteed reservation at a motel in Kayenta 70 miles to the southwest.

Author's Note: Do not attempt Navajo Route 63 unless you are driving a high-clearance four-wheel-drive vehicle and you are wilderness-equipped. It's best to avoid this section of bad road. An alternate is available. A few hundred yards north of the junction of Navajo routes 33 and 63 in Red Rock, Navajo Route 5020 angles off from Route 63, going northeast into New Mexico. In dry weather, with a high-clearance four-wheel-drive vehicle, this is an easily negotiated dirt road that comes out onto U.S. Route 64, about 10 miles east of the Arizona/New Mexico border. Back-road travel can be hazardous if you are not prepared for the unexpected. Whether traveling in the desert or in the high country, be aware of weather and road conditions and make sure you and your vehicle are in top shape and you have plenty of water. Don't travel alone and let someone at home know where you're going and when you plan to return.

TIPS FOR TRAVELERS