Enclave

Northeastern Arizona is sometimes referred to as “Indian Country” because of the sizable reservations of the Hopi and Navajo nations located there. Historically, there have been disagreements between the tribes stemming from the way lands were broken up by federal government policies. These days the tribes get along pretty well. We got a chance to travel through both on this trip (our first time on Hopi lands), ending up at the Canyon de Chelly National Monument in Navajo territory. In my humble opinion this place has the most beautiful of Southwest canyons. (Dad agrees with me.)

Interestingly, the Hopi Reservation is an enclave, completely surrounded by the Navajo Nation. Dad explains it this way: Hopi is to Navajo as Lesotho is to South Africa. Geography nerds will understand.

Fun fact: we kept changing our clocks on this day because the Navajo observe Daylight Saving time, whereas the Hopi have thrown in their lot with the rest of Arizona, using Standard Time the whole year around.

Tenting

I’m very proud of the camping skills I’ve developed over the years. Dad and I have a bunch of routines that help us efficiently set up and pack up our campsites. I help with those tasks every step of the way, but I’m also flexible. Dad has a slightly different procedure for setting up a tent in a high wind (lots of that in the Southwest). He gave me praise for following his instructions perfectly.

Speaking of tents, ours is being held together with duct tape at this point. It’s probably our last season with this one. My long time readers may recall that our last tent gave out on the road during the summer of 2016, so we purchased the one we have now in Utah. Most tents last around ten years with moderate to heavy use, so do the math. Dad is hoping to “muddle through” (his words) with this one for the remainder of the season. We’ll see…

Citadel

If you’re interested in Native American archeological sites, I highly recommend Wupatki National Monument in Arizona. Although most of these structures were abandoned around 1300 C.E. (for reasons not completely understood), they have been protected and preserved for posterity. My personal favorite building is the Citadel. It’s on top of a hill and has a commanding view of the surrounding plateau. Good for defense and for generally seeing what’s going on.

We ended up here as smoke refugees from our campground nearby during the afternoon. By the time we got back to camp in the evening, skies were (sort of) clear. We’ve had lots of good luck on this trip.