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Arizona

Hopi Mesas & Navajo Lands of Canyon de Chelly & Monument Valley

Program No. 18591RJ

Gain a deeper understanding of Hopi and Navajo cultures as you visit their reservations to experience the landscapes, artifacts and traditions that have shaped their ancient story.

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7 days

6 nights

17 meals

6B 5L 6D

Check-in, Orientation, Welcome Dinner

Flagstaff, AZ

Museum of Northern Arizona, Wutpatki National Monument

Tuba City

Navajo Cultural Museum, Code Talkers, Petroglyphs

Tuba City

Hopi Pottery Demonstration, Hopi Village Visit

Chinle, AZ

Canyon de Chelly South Rim, 4x4 Drive

Chinle, AZ

Monument Valley, Goulding's, Cameron Trading Post

Cameron, AZ

To Flagstaff, Program Concludes

Flagstaff, AZ

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At a Glance

Stay on both the Navajo and Hopi reservations and immerse yourself in these cultures with exposure to native speakers and artisans who share insights into their life ways. Visit one of the oldest Hopi villages atop a windswept mesa. At Canyon de Chelly, field trips visit both North and South rims and the inner Canyon. Experience Monument Valley’s iconic formations and sweeping vistas.

Activity Level

Keep the Pace

Walking up to one mile daily over varied terrain. Optional longer hike at Canyon de Chelly to Ancestral Puebloan ruins. Elevations up to 7,300 feet.

Small Group

Love to learn and explore in a small-group setting? These adventures offer small, personal experiences with groups of 13 to 24 participants.

Best of all, you’ll…

Enjoy two Navajo-/Diné-led 4x4 adventures to see ruins, petroglyphs and natural beauty.
Enjoy a docent-led field trip to the Museum of Northern Arizona and learn about the region's past, present and future.
Visit Hubble Trading Post and hear from Navajo/Diné and Hopi speakers about their cultures and challenges.

Featured Expert

All trip experts

Stewart Lasseter

Stewart Lasseter completed studies in geo-science, natural history and Spanish at the University of Arizona. He then studied as the protégé of a Native American healer, learning from her practices of wholeness, kinesiology, mind-body medicine, and dyslexia correction. He has years of experience bringing groups in touch with the natural world and has completed post-graduate studies in health sciences at Prescott College.

Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.

Stewart Lasseter View biography

Dorothy Ami View biography

Dorothy Ami is a well-respected Hopi potter. Her demonstrations detail the pottery making process — from gathering the clay to tempering, coiling a piece, making the paints from nature, painting with a yucca brush and firing.

James Bilagody View biography

James Bilagody has been entertaining Road Scholar participants with his stories, wit, and music for many years. He has twice been nominated for the Native American Music Awards, as well as having received consideration for a Grammy Award. Skilled in both percussion and guitar, James is able to fuse traditional Navajo storytelling and culture into a modern perspective and sound.

Eric Kee View biography

Eric Kee was born and raised on the Navajo Reservation in Tuba, City, Ariz. In addition to sharing his Navajo culture, Eric enjoys spending his spare time building Native American flutes, working with silver and enjoys hiking, kayaking, camping with his family. He met his wife in Florence, Italy during his three years teaching English and working Italian camps for kids. He, along with his wife and three children, currently reside in Tuba City, Arizona.

Robert Sanford View biography

Buck Sanford graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.S. in natural resources and spent several years working in Costa Rica as a freelance tropical biologist and research station manager. After a Ph.D. at UC Berkeley, he held positions at Stanford, NC State, and Colorado State. He was a biology professor at Denver University for several decades. Following a stint as a program director at the National Science Foundation, Buck worked as a professor and an administrator at Northern Arizona University, retiring in 2021.

Sandra Kehs View biography

Sandy Kehs, a native of Pennsylvania, chose Arizona as her home after completing her master's degree in Spanish at Penn State. She has monitored archaeological sites for the state of Arizona as a site steward in addition to working for the Elden Pueblo Project in Flagstaff, providing hands-on learning to young students about the ancient Sinaguan Native American culture in the Flagstaff area. Her other interests include hiking, bird watching, observing the night sky, and traveling with her husband Dan, and their dog Chuy.

Suggested Reading List (9 books)

Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop

You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.

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Hopi Mesas & Navajo Lands of Canyon de Chelly & Monument Valley

Program Number: 18591

The Fourth World of the Hopis: The Epic Story of the Hopi Indians As Preserved in Their Legends and Traditions

by Courlander, Harold

Folklorist Courlander traces Hopi legends from the tribe’s search through the wilderness for its home location to its settling on the Hopi Mesas and development thereafter. 239pp

Native Roads : The Complete Motoring Guide to the Navajo and Hopi Nations

by Kosik, Frank

Using the mile markers of the US, Arizona, and Navajo highways and routes running through the Navajo and Hopi nations as her organizing principle, the author offers a travel guide to the sites found in the area. Natural, historical, and cultural points of interest are covered, along with some information on lodging and services. 280 pp

Roadside Geology of Arizona

by Chronic, Halka

The 18th printing of this book in the Roadside Geology Series offers a mini-course in geology, focusing on what can be seen from Arizona highways. Although written especially for those with little or no geologic training, there's plenty here for the professional geologist as well--a great introduction to Arizona and its past. Geologic terms are defined where first used and again in the glossary. Inside the front cover is a legend to geological symbols and abbreviations commonly used by geologists. 321pp

Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West

by Sides, Hampton

In the summer of 1846, the Army of the West marched through Santa Fe, en route to invade and occupy the Western territories claimed by Mexico. Fueled by the new ideology of “Manifest Destiny,” this land grab would lead to a decades-long battle between the United States and the Navajos, the fiercely resistant rulers of a huge swath of mountainous desert wilderness. In Blood and Thunder, Hampton Sides gives us a magnificent history of the American conquest of the West. At the center of this sweeping tale is Kit Carson, the trapper, scout, and soldier whose adventures made him a legend. Sides shows us how this illiterate mountain man understood and respected the Western tribes better than any other American, yet willingly followed orders that would ultimately devastate the Navajo nation. Rich in detail and spanning more than three decades, this is an essential addition to our understanding of how the West was really won.

Following the Sun and Moon: Hopi Kachina Tradition

by Secakuku, Alph

A guide to Kachinas written by a Hopi author

Diné: A History of the Navajos

by Iverson, Peter; Roessel, Monty

This comprehensive narrative traces the history of the Navajos from their origins to the beginning of the twenty-first century. Based on extensive archival research, traditional accounts, interviews, historic and contemporary photographs, and firsthand observation, it provides a detailed, up-to-date portrait of the Diné past and present that will be essential for scholars, students, and interested general readers, both Navajo and non-Navajo.

Warriors: Navajo Code Talkers

by Kawano, Kenji

The American offensive in the Pacific during World War II [was] hampered by the Japanese ability to crack the most secret U.S. Codes. Navajo was virtually unknown outside the reservations, ... and [their] code proved uncrackable. Kenji Kawano's striking photographs capture the quiet dignity of the surviving veterans as they recall their actions --Los Angeles Times 128 pp

Hisat’sinom: Ancient Peoples in a Land Without Water

by Downum, Christian E. (Editor)

The national monuments of Wupatki, Walnut Canyon, and Montezumas Castle showcase the treasures of the first people who settled and developed farms, towns, and trade routes throughout northern Arizona and beyond. The Hopis call these ancient peoples Hisatsinom, and Spanish explorers named their hard, arid homeland the sierra sin agua, mountains without water. Indeed, much of the region receives less annual precipitation than the quintessential desert city of Tucson. In Hisatsinom: Ancient Peoples in a Land without Water, archaeologists explain how the people of this region flourished despite living in a place with very little water and extremes of heat and cold. Exploiting the mulching properties of volcanic cinders blasted out of Sunset Crater, the Hisatsinom grew corn and cotton, made and traded fine cotton cloth and decorated ceramics, and imported exotic goods like turquoise and macaws from hundreds even thousands of miles away. From clues as small as the tiny fingerprints left on childrens toys, postholes in the floors of old houses, and widely scattered corn fields, archaeologists have pieced together an intriguing portrait of what childhood was like, the importance of weaving cotton cloth, and how farmers managed risk in a harsh environment. At its peak in the late 1100s, Wupatki stood as the region's largest and tallest town, a cultural center for people throughout the surrounding region. It was a gathering place, a trading center, a treasury of exotic goods, a landmark, and a place of sacred ritual and ceremony. Then, after 1200, people moved away and the pueblo sank into ruin.

Me and Mine: The Life Story of Helen Sekaquaptewa

by Udall, Louise

An energetic Hopi woman emerges from a traditional family background to embrace the more conventional way of life in American today. Enchanting and enlightening—a rare piece of primary source anthropology. 262 pp

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Hopi Mesas & Navajo Lands of Canyon de Chelly & Monument Valley

Enroll with Confidence

Protecting the Environment

At a Glance

Best of all, you’ll…

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