Last night we sat by the fire with a clear sky, stars and the moon and dark canyon walls rising above us.  Winnie sat with us and told us the story of Spider Woman.

In the old times, the world was full of monsters - in the rivers and in the air - like dinosaurs.  At that time twins were born who grew to be great monster slayers and helped the five fingered people.  The twins heard that there was a huge spider living in Spider Rock who knew how to weave.  They decided to go and see for themselves, and to see if she could help the people learn how to weave.

They couldn't reach the rock from the canyon edge.  An air person offered to fly them across as long as they followed his rules and their intentions were good.  He flew them over and they hid until they saw a huge spider crawl out at the base and all around the rock.  It crawled around the other side and disappeared.  After searching for some time they found a tiny hole and the air person told them that was where the spider had gone.  The air person offered to send them through the hole as long as their intentions were good.

They went inside and saw a beautiful woman weaving at a loom.  She offered to teach them how to weave to help the people, as long as whatever was made was put to good use. Her loom was made of lightning, rain, gravity and rainbows - all of the universe.  She told them how to weave and then sent them back through the hole out of the cave.  And that is the story that Winnie's mother, who was a weaver, told her about how the Navajo learnt to weave.

The next morning after a good night's sleep, Winnie brought out her loom and showed us how she weaves.  Just like the Spider Woman, the loom represents all the elements of the universe.  Winnie only makes rugs to order.  For some customers she shears the sheep, cards and spins the wool, dyes it, then weaves the rug.  Each design has a special meaning.

After the weaving demonstration we had lunch and rested in preparation for our afternoon hike.  Kerrie was using the outhouse (or the loo with a view as we have named it as the door doesn't close!) when she saw smoke nearby and some bushes on Winnie's property burst into flame.

She raised the alarm and we all dashed to the rescue with shovels and buckets.  Cheryl, Megan and Meredith shovelled dirt on the blaze while the others ran to the river to fetch water.  We put the blaze out quickly and were glad we'd delayed our start to the day!

After the excitement settled down, we started on our hike to Spring Canyon. It was another glorious day.  Photos will never convey the incredible beauty of this place. 

In Spring Canyon we hiked to a cave with fantastic pictographs (rock

paintings) and Anasazi ruins.  Kerrie climbed up the rock face for a closer look, followed by Marion, Winnie, Megan, Meredith and Beth.

We stopped for a while to take in the views before hiking back home.  Winnie took us down a side path to see some petroglyphs (rock carvings) that few guides knew about.  We saw people, Kokopelli, birds, mountains, deer and other symbols we couldn't decipher.

Then it was back home and another night by the fire.

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