Sacred Stone: Spider Rock

The Navajo Nation has many amazing sights, but Spider Rock may be one of the most interesting and stunning. This impressive monolith stands around 800 ft tall in Canyon del Chelly and began forming 230 million years ago.

This is the reputed home of Spider Women and as such is incredibly sacred to native peoples. She was the first to weave her web of the universe and taught the Navajo weaving. Spider Woman is also said to be responsible for the stars in the sky, she took a web she had spun, laced it with dew, threw it into the sky and the dew became stars. In some stories, the white rocks on top of the spire represent the bones of misbehaving children she has hauled up there! For more background see here: discovernavajo.com/spho.html ( http://discovernavajo.com/spho.html )

Happy Perseid Meteor viewing this weekend all!

P.S. this one if for AZTransplant/Nicki, she has long recommended I visit here and I'm so glad I did! Check out her stream here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickimiller/ ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickimiller/ )

AZArizonaCanyon del ChellyNavajo NationDineNavajoRockSpireMonolithNatureLandscapeSpider RockSpiderSacredPlacesTurkey VultureVultureCanyonChinleNot HDRNikonD7002012AMichael Menefee