Part I: Marble Canyon, Arizona
It was well after dark before we found the turnoff onto road 89A that would take us
into a magnificent landscape of craggy red cliff faces, eroding mesas, creosote
covered flat lands and emerald rivers-- on trough to Marble Canyon.
Road 89A is spooky at night. The wind howls through an invisible canyon and a set
of headlights does little to illuminate the darkness. After dark, a landscape that
holds in its body the luminosity of the sun itself, turns to charcoal shadows, bone
colored tumbleweeds, and gusts of sand.
We drove for several miles along the road and eventually found illuminated
marquee of our motel: The Cliff Dwellers Lodge. Made in a low berric- style
formation of independent structures adorned with flagstone siding, the motel felt
grown from the rocks and sunken into the landscape.
The next day we woke to still air, a vast blue arc of sky, and fiery rock formations.
Marble Canyon Arizona is part of the severely altered Colorado River tributary that
extends to the Grand Canyon. Water that once flowed freely to naturally irrigate
Navajo crops and bring water to nearby communities was radically diverted
through the damming of nearby Glen Canyon—now Lake Powell. There are no
pictures here of the enormous sandstone basin often referred to as a “giant
evaporating bathtub” by environmentalist, but a quick internet search will give you
an idea. A shimmering destination in the desert, Lake Powell is a broad expanse
littered with houseboats and jet skis. It’s shores are lined with resorts and mooring
docs. The area now submerged under water is said to be home to the highest
density of ancient petroglyphs and pictographs in the United States. It was also
considered to be one of the largest canyons in the US before it was filled – a title now
reserved for the Grand Canyon. It seems appropriate that this glittery manmade
“lake” is generating power for other desert mirages. Its power feeds cities built on
the premise of defying and conquering mother nature-- cities such as Phoenix,
Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada.
These red rocks are situated largely within the gigantic swath of land that is The
Navajo Nation. Marble Canyon’s bright formations, cavernous canyons and sub
canyons compose only part of the over 17 million acres that spans three states and
encompasses the Navajo Nation. From Northern Arizona, the drama of the Nation’s
landscape expands with uninterrupted grace and grandeur across the thresholds of
Arizona and Utah, comprising the largest uninterrupted Native American
reservation in the US.