by Doug Haag, participant

The Canyonlands Field Institute (CFI) of Moab, Utah offered a hike to Rainbow Bridge National Monument – 5 nights, 5 days, with pack animals to carry your heavy gear.  Anyone can take a boat on Lake Powell and drive by boat to within a mile of Rainbow Bridge, but to walk to it over rugged ground for 4 days really appealed to me.  Do it the hard way like they did in 1909 (or even earlier if you were a Navaho, or Navajo, if you prefer).

We met at the Recapture Lodge Motel in Bluff, UT Tuesday evening (May 3, 2005) and met our CFI guide, Karla.  We were 9 hiker clients (with one husband-wife photographer team from Outdoor Utah magazine, who were documenting the hike for their 2006 edition, due out in March 2006).  We packed our tents and bedrolls in CFI’s pack bags and the next morning left Bluff via a van to the Navajo National Monument for a quick view of Betatakin ruins, a picnic lunch, and then on to Navajo Mountain Community of some 200 Navajos, scattered widely across the high desert, looking west to Navajo Mountain, 10,300’ high, compared to our 6,500’ base.  Red sandstone rock (Navajo sandstone, of course) juniper cedars, pinion pine, black bush and a myriad of desert and cactus flowers.

Here we met our Navajo hosts, the gracious Atene family including grandpa Buck Navajo (his real name) and mother Rose, a traditional Navajo woman who lived the old way in a hogan, tending her large – 200? – flock of sheep, with the help of some capable and independent dogs.  Rose had 8 children, some of whom we met.  Eric was to be our pack master, with the help of a relative, Randall, who was a genuine cowboy with the rodeo scars to prove it, but you just knew he was a cowboy by looking at him.  And don’t forget Eric’s nephew, 11-year old Andrew, who was a budding wrangler in his own right.  That evening we also met brother Herman and sisters Shirley and Sarah.  Later we met Eric’s wife, Charlene.  Eric, Herman and Charlene, and perhaps others, had college degrees from Northern AZ University and said that they believe in education in order to get meaningful jobs, but at the same time, they want to respect and live and keep their culture.

That evening CFI provided steak and salad and the Atene women provided beans and fry bread.  After dinner we were told the history of the Navajo Mountain Community, which is in a remote western part of the Navajo reservation, that is already in a remote part of the USA.

In 1864, when Kit Carson was rounding up all the Navajos in order to move them to New Mexico, 26 people (13 men and 13 women and children) led by Hoshkinini, hid out in the labyrinthine canyons (you should see them!) on the north slopes of Navajo Mountain.  They successfully eluded Kit and his boys in blue.  And from this remnant sprung the present-day community of Navajo Mountain.  They never signed a treaty with anyone, though they may have stolen (abducted?) a few women from the Utes and Paiutes to help replenish the population.  Many from the community today live off the “rez.”  In 1868 the US president allowed the Navajos to return to their ancestral home after a delegation went to Washington to plead their case.

After dinner, Buck Navajo, 82 years old, chanted a very touching and spiritual Blessing Way for us, followed by a prayer asking for a safe journey for us to Navajo Bridge, which is a very sacred place for them.  That night (Wednesday) we set up our tents among the trees around the Atene’s home and were serenaded by dogs, coyotes, horses, burros and what seemed like a lot of car and truck traffic on the rural roads – people going to work, I guess.

We were also told the story about the first Anglos to see the bridge.  In 1908 there were persistent rumors that the Navajos talked among themselves about a large stone bridge in a remote canyon.  Two white guys (a Mr. Douglass and a Mr. Cummings, who was a university professor) each hired their own Paiute guide, Nasja Begay and Mike’s Boy (also known as Jim Mike).  They were in direct competition with each other, eager to be the first white man to “discover’ the bridge.  It seems that Mr. Begay actually knew where the bridge was, and Mr. Mike was only guessing.  Anyway, the two parties eventually agreed to work together and raced onward.  Mr. Begay held the secret to the way because only he knew of a steep slot canyon that led down into a tributary of Bridge Canyon.  Today, at the bridge, there are two plaques acknowledging the efforts of Mr. Begay and Mr. Mike in leading the two unnamed white men to the site.  Good on them!  The local Indians first found the bridge – not Douglas or Cummings.

We were up early on Thursday, May 5, ate breakfast and rode several miles by truck to the trailhead.  Eric, his wife Charlene, Randall and Andrew took care of loading our gear on the horses and mules and we started hiking with Karla as our guide.  That morning we stopped to see an old hogan which had belonged to a Paiute named Toby Owl. Mr. Owl had died about 15 years ago and his hogan was left undisturbed.  Did you know that there are male and female hogans?  Not as to who may live in them, but the hogans themselves.

 

After dinner Eric told us a bit about himself and his desire to keep his culture alive.  He and Charlene have 3 young sons and he’s a teacher at the Montezuma Creek Community elementary school.

On Sunday, the last day, we hiked 1 mile to Lake Powell, passing under Rainbow Bridge on the way.  Eric and his crew and pack animals left and he said that they would be home in 6 hours because the horses were eager to get home.  It was a sad but thankful parting from these new friends.  I marveled at how they could keep their stock from straying too far, for they only hobbled one horse.  But they still had to round them up each morning.  Eric and Randall and Andrew just seemed to love to chase horses.  I think they would let them loose on purpose, so that they could chase them.

At 10:30 a.m. (Sunday) two boats met us and took us up stream to Hall’s Crossing, where CFI had a van waiting to take us back to the motel in Bluff.  We completed our circle at 4 p.m.  We were all quiet with our own thoughts.  I know I shall never forget this hike and I am so glad that I went.

Rainbow Bridge: Stars, Stone, Stories - by Anne Jakle

If this sounds interesting to you, contact:  Canyonlands Field Institute, PO Box 68, Moab, Utah 84532; ph: 435-259-7750; website:  www.canyonlandsfieldinst.org

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