Three Turkey Ruin Means Adventure

We’ve only been there once, but we will never forget Three Turkey Ruin, situated off the Canyon de Chelley perimeter road. The remnants of a nineteen room Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwelling can be accessed on a dirt road. If you peruse the Indian Country road map, this dirt road veers east and also provides a short cut to Fort Defiance; this drive is more direct than going around the main paved roads to Ganado and then east to Window Rock.

We made the mistake of taking this dirt road one late autumn afternoon, already dwindling into dusk. Recent rain and snow had created a soupy coating of mud on the road that threatened to bog down our four wheel drive. As night fell, the lack of lights around us and the fact that we were going through tree-filled wilderness, fueled our unease. Small paths split off to habitations we couldn’t see, the mud sucked at our wheels like quicksand and our hearts thudded with growing panic. Our car would bog down miles from anywhere and no one else would be traversing this road. My husband floored the vehicle, afraid to brake, and we kept going on a road that seemed to climb at an elevation. Just when we felt the first pangs of real terror, the road hit pavement. We’d made Fort Defiance.

I remember us eating a celebratory taco dinner at the Navajo Nation Motor Inn. I suspect others have an adventure like this to report. It taught us one thing, for sure. Never travel a road because it seems like a good shortcut!

Three Turkey Ruin (from dawnKIS photography: http://bit.ly/T4EtPt)

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