An Unexpected Sight

  Continuing west from St. Michaels, State Highway 264 begins a slow, steady ascent to the summit of the Defiance Plateau. Since Window Rock sits at an elevation of 6,862 feet above sea level, I would guess that St. Michaels is slightly higher than that.  
  Most of the Navajo Indian Reservation is barren desert with a distinctly red hue to the landscape, from red sand dunes to red rock formations. Other parts of the reservation are a high desert grassland studded with pinon and juniper trees, most notably Utah Juniper with its distinctive blue berries. But these areas still have the red accents to the landscape. However, the first time I ever drove the stretch of  Highway 264 west of Window Rock and St. Michaels, I was stunned by what I saw! As the highway climbs up and over the Defiance Plateau, it enters a very thick forest of ponderosa pine with  some aspen and spruce trees thrown in for good measure! It reminded me of the forest around Flagstaff and Flagstaff is a very thickly forested city.   I am not sure what the elevation is at the highest point on Highway 264, but it is roughly about 8,500 feet above sea level. On both edges of the heavily forested area, there is a wooden sign that is next to the highway that looks identical to Forest Service signs that announce the boundary of a national forest. But these are not Forest Service signs, these signs were erected by the Navajo Division of Forestry. These signs say "DEFIANCE PLATEAU, NAVAJO NATION FOREST." This is a lush area with bountiful game and a few, small lakes, but it is still a dry forest like the one around Flagstaff is with no permanent streams, just streams that flow for short distances and then disappear underground and also plenty of dry streambeds. This forest has roughly 150 to 200 pine trees per acre, but there are probably some places with an even higher density of trees.
  In subsequent trips through the Navajo Reservation, I would find other areas of the reservation that are just as heavily forested as the Defiance Plateau is, especially in the Chuska Mountains, which is why that now defunct sawmill was set up and the nearby town of Navajo, New Mexico was built to house the sawmill employees. 
   About 16 miles beyond the summit of the Defiance Plateau lies the town of Ganado, one of the most historic towns on the Navajo Reservation.