Doreen and Laura's Excellent Adventure: Things don't always go as planned!

Canyon de Chelly National Monument, AZ

(Sightseeing)

May 1, 2017 - May 3, 2017

We last visited Canyon de Chelly about 30 years ago and this trip we wanted to take a jeep tour down into the canyon itself. We spent our first afternoon there driving along the north rim of the canyon and stopping at the three different viewpoints where you can see down into the canyon. The north rim views are predominantly of Canyon del Muerto which joins Canyon de Chelly at the west end of both canyons. From these viewpoints you can see the fields that are currently farmed by the Navajo as well as ruins which were built by ancient Puebloans prior to 1300 AD. In the morning we made reservations for our guided trip into the canyon itself, then set out to view Canyon de Chelly from the south rim drive. We got back to our motorhome just in time for a quick lunch and to take Barney out for a potty run. Laura stepped up onto the couch to get something out of a cabinet and when she stepped down she turned her ankle and came down with a thud on her sacrum screaming in pain. As I was trying to help her she managed to quickly tell me to call the tour operator and tell them we would not be able to take the tour. With that done I called 911 .... but there was no answer. That was not reassuring! I grabbed a ranger who told me to call the hospital and gave me the number. An ambulance finally arrived and took Laura to their local hospital with me following in the car. After giving them all the necessary information I sat in the waiting room for several hours until Laura was pushed out of the ER in a wheelchair. Luckily she hadn't broken anything but she was given some crutches and told to stay off her left foot. So much for the tour of the canyons. Guess we'll have to make a third trip to get that checked off our list.