Beauty Way Jeep Tours

Welcome – Yá’át’ééh

Beauty Way Jeep Tours
About Canyon De Chelly

Thank you for visiting us. Canyon De Chelly (pronounced d’shay) is in the Center of the Navajo Nation in the community of Chinle, Arizona. The Canyon is home to over 50 Navajo families, that still utilize the land for farming, ranching and a weekend home. Throughout the Canyon you will come across hundreds of historical sites, ranging from pictograph, petroglyph, cliff dwellings created by the Ancestral Puebloans (Anasazi), and granaries. Beauty Way Jeep Tours prides itself and stating that all of our guides are local Navajo in habitants of the Canyon many of us still occupy our homestead and farmland within the base of the canyon floor. Our Guides are all authorized by the National Park Service and Navajo Park and Recreation to lead visitors into the Canyon by Jeep, hiking, and camping.

First inhabitants or visitors of Canyon De Chelly south canyon and Canyon Del Muerto north canyon were the Archaic people aging over 5000 years ago. Very little is known of this people who they were or where they may have left too. Today you will be able to see several of the rock art primarily petroglyphs.

Next we have the Ancestral Puebloans (Anasazi) who may have entered the Canyon as early as 200 B.C. and left around 1300 AD. Throughout the Canyon you will see plenty of rock art and intact cliff dwellings. Guides will stop and allow you to get out of the vehicle to get a better view of each location. The guides will provide information on each site and share stories or ideas on how the previous people would have lived in the area over one thousand years ago.

Hopi entered the canyon from 1300 to 1600 and had utilized the canyon for farming and harvesting. Today Hopi are located 80 miles southwest of Canyon De Chelly. The Hopi had introduced peaches into the area.
Navajo came into Canyon De Chelly just about 1600 and may have possibly shared the Canyon with the Hopi. Today the Navajo believe the canyon to be very sacred many of our origin story highlight locations within the canyon such as Spider Rock, a 700 foot butte that stands between the canyon walls in Canyon De Chelly. Guides are will verse in Navajo Culture and Traditions and are willing to share many of their personal stories of being Navajo. We also share historical information on Spaniards and U.S. Calvary entering into the Canyon.

Establishing our business in 1989 as De Chelly Tours, my father wanted to highlight the south Canyon where our family homestead is located. In 2005 we decided to rebrand the company to Beauty Way Jeep Tours. Beauty Way is a Navajo way of life. With our tours we wanted to highlight more of our traditions and give thanks to our ancestors so we named our company Beauty Way Jeep Tours.

Explanation of Beauty Way. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwegDq6quQY

Our company has lead hundreds of visitors from all over the world for over 35 years. We have accommodate Sierra Club, REI, Jeep Jamboree, countless universities and scholars. Our company also has lead several large film and photograph groups into the canyon Disney Lone Ranger, PBS, Firstline Films, Arizona Highway, foreign documentaries. Trips we’ve accommodated for special interested guest include photographers, painters, geologist, architects, authors, musicians, weavers, religious groups and large tour bus we’ve accommodated more than 75 people on a trip into Canyon De Chelly.