17 May 19

After a good night’s sleep, we hit the road at 07:00 and headed west, toward Chinle, AZ. At Grants, NM, we turned off I-40 and headed south on NM 53 to visit the Ice Cave and Bandera Volcano. The Ice Cave is a collapsed lava tube from the Bandera Volcano, that is just deep enough and oriented such that it catches snow and ground water and freezes during the winter. It accumulates enough snow and ice during the winter that it never thaws out; since about 1400 BC. The native Americans and early settlers used to harvest ice out of it during the summers. We also hiked up to the rim of the Bandera Volcano crater; this is a 10,000 year old cinder cone volcano that blew up and dumped a huge amount of lava into the surrounding plain. Great views from the top. Then, we drove on to Chinle, where we checked into the Holiday Inn, just outside of Canyon de Chelly at 18:30 MDT. Long day and 630 odd miles. Tomorrow, we tackle Canyon de Chelly. En route during the day, I had a long phone conversation with the folks at Memorial Hermann Transplant Center; bottom line is that they will not accept my kidney because of my melanoma history because of the risk of the donor contracting melanoma (post-transplant) because he will be shot full of immuno-suppressant drugs to prevent rejection of the new kidney. So, he will have to get one from someone else. Bummer.

18 May 19

We were up early and spent the day at Canyon de Chelly, driving to every viewpoint, doing the hike down to White House ruins and back up, and visiting the visitor center. A beautiful canyon, but a strenuous day. Lots and lots of photos. We walked about 10 miles altogether and were tired when we got back to the hotel. Unfortunately, the hotel restaurant was closed for dinner, on account of a HS graduation party, so we had to head into town; Chinle does not have too many options and we settled for the Junction Cafe at the Best Western Hotel - not to be repeated, although the wait-staff tried very hard.