Friday, June 18th Navajo and Hopi Territories

Friday, June 18th we relaxed around the campground until around 10 a.m. then took to the road, driving a big loop east on I-40 to AZ-77 and north up to AZ-264 then south down AZ-87 and back on I-40 to Holbrook. The purpose was to drive up through Navajo land to see what the area looked like and how they lived and then over to the Hopi Second Mesa area for the Cultural Museum. The land was long and flat and sandy throughout most of the trip until we reached the area of the Mesas. The Navajo houses were generally very far apart with single building, either modular homes or double wide trailers. We ran into the hills and mesa areas up where AZ-264 ran east and west and followed them past the Hopi "First Mesa" and over to the "Second Mesa" where AZ-87 intersected and ran south to I-40. We had lunch at a small roadside stand serving roasted corn on the cob (in the shuck). Very good. The Hopi houses seemed more permanent and were more clustered together in village style Big schools and hospital and an airport in the Hopi land. Then drove up to Second Mesa to the Hopi Cultural Museum, which unfortunately was closed. Talked to a man operating a Silver store next door and found out that the lady running the museum showed up when she wanted to. Of course a lot of people came there specifically to see the museum so the man was not too happy about her schedule as it hurt his business. Back down from Second Mesa and turned onto AZ-87 and drove a ruler straight line (almost) for fifty miles to I-40. Desert, desert, desert. Flat land and dust/sand broken by the buttes and mesas.