I promise to only use my powers for good.
In fact, the oath which I swore (with a surprising amount of solemnity) had me promise to share what I learned about National Parks with my friends and family, so this post isn't JUST a wrap-up of the canyon trip, it's me doing my Junior Ranger duty. So there.
The morning started with breakfast in the hotel (which, unfortunately, had an answer to, "Really? How can you screw up eggs?") and then Dad and I met our guide for our trip into Canyon De Chelly -- a local Navajo guy named Frank. We got in Frank's truck, which had seen better days. The windshield had several cracks across it, which had some beads of glue in them, and Frank admitted this had happened on prior rough trips into the canyon. So it was with some trepidation that we set off -- I really had no idea what I was getting into.
A canyon, basically. Conveniently, we entered at ... an entrance. Which is to say, we didn't have to do any four-wheel drive action down the side or anything. There was an opening between the canyon walls at what we'll call the shallow end, and we pretty much just drove across the flat and watched the canyon walls grow up around us. Frank stopped at various sites in the canyon with historical significance. There were a good deal of Anasazi ruins in there (I am simultaneously pleased that I already have familiarity with the term Anasazi and ashamed that it's from "The X-Files") and petroglyphs and stuff. (Frank pointed out the petroglyphs by shining a light on them. Well, by holding a broken-off rear-view mirror and catching the sun to direct it toward them. It was a perfect, clever, low-cost solution.) He also pointed out various rock formations which looked like animals (the turtle one totally looked like a turtle) and others that were just beautiful. We got lectures on history and information about how Frank and his family lived (his family still lives in the canyon, growing crops) and horrible stories about what happened to the Navajo people during "Kit Carson time" and how some survived (and others did not) by hiding in the canyon.
I got pictures.
It was a three-hour trip, which was just about enough, because you'll notice that there's no such thing as a road in the canyon, and we were bouncing along the lack-of-road with such enthusiasm that I was trying really hard NOT to watch the cracks across the windshield grow larger.
When we got back, we picked up mom at the hotel and went to Denny's for lunch (where we were reminded what food actually tastes like). Then we went for a drive around the top of the canyon, stopping off at a couple of the outlooks. (When we'd been at the bottom, we looked up at people on the outlooks at waved at them. Now I waved from the other side.) The coolest lookout is near Spider Rock, which is a free-standing spire where a couple canyons intersect. We dug the Spider Rock lookout.
On our way back, we stopped at the Visitor Center. This was our second National Park Visitor Center this trip (the other one being the Trading Post, yesterday). The Park Ranger at the Trading Post told us about the Junior Ranger program -- and pointed out that most of the people filling out the forms there appeared to be grown-ups. When we went into the Visitor Center at Canyon De Chelly, I pointed out to my dad the form you have to fill out to get the Canyon De Chelly Junior Ranger badge, and that it looked pretty cool.
Dad said he'd get me the Junior Ranger badge.
We walk in the Visitor Center and I see my dad talking with the Ranger about how he'd like to get he Junior Ranger badge for his adult daughter. He may have even played the "birthday" card.
The ranger plays this totally straight, tells my father that there's no age limit to the Junior Ranger program, and gives us the worksheet that everyone has to fill out to become a Junior Ranger.
Dad picks up a pencil. I offered to help, but he said this was on him.
I shit you not, people. This is my Dad doing the Junior Ranger worksheet.
He was really working at it, too. I mean, some of it was easy -- and we DID pick up quite a bit of knowledge on our tour that morning -- but there was a lot to it. Eventually, the ranger said he'd done enough to earn his badge (and a Canyon De Chelly postcard, and a Junior Ranger pencil, and, as it turned out, a 15% discount on that thing I was about to buy while he was doing paperwork). The had us both say the Junior Ranger oath, gave us the cherished badge, and then Dad proudly pinned it on me.
I cannot tell you how unexpected and totally adorable this whole thing was. We went to some National Parks when I was a kid, but this was before the Junior Ranger Program. Dad doing the Junior Ranger worksheet and getting the badge -- when I'm 50 and he's a bit more -- wasn't making up for anything lost, but just picking up on something we'd never had a chance to do before. It was sweet, and memorialized our morning together, and, honestly, I don't know if I'll ever go to a National Park with my Dad again, but, now, this is OUR THING, and I didn't really expect to get a new thing with Dad for my 50 for 50.
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