Hopi Hospitality

On the way out of Wahweep campground, we dumped our waste tanks and filled the fresh water. The service station in the campground had propane, but I asked the very young attendant if she was familiar with filling RV tanks. With her replying "I can give it a try," we elected to find another place. Although Allstays didn't list it, a large Shell station  across the street from Walmart in Page had diesel and an easy to access propane fill. We submitted the location, so hopefully it will appear soon.


Local information mentioned a Hanging Gardens trail just outside of town so we set out to explore. There were only a few cars parked in the lot, one of which was a bit larger Mercedes RV than ours.

The trail through the desert gravel was clearly marked on both sides by small rocks.

Arid and dry landscape met a rock outcropping where enough water seeps out of the rocks to nurture ferns and even a few orchids.

This small amount of water attracted lizards, ravens, and a spotted ground squirrel.

A bit further down the road, a turnoff for the Horseshoe Bend Overlook pointed us to an overfilled parking lot. A line of people, looking like pilgrims, walked the 1.5 mile trail from the parking lot to a large crack in the ground.

Not in view until just before we reached the edge, the curve of the Colorado river 1,000 feet below the plateau is something special.  The scale is hard to fathom, but those little dots on the river are kayaks.

Leaving Page, the rain finally caught up with us and the van received a good rinsing. The skies remained dark and ominous, until we drove through another serious thunderstorm.

Driving through the mesas, a truck was stopped half-on and half-off the road ahead. Turned out the driver was shooing a group of goats off the road. We were glad we hadn't come upon them in the rain storm.

 

 

Driving 130 miles through the desert, we reached the Hopi Cultural Center just after 3:00 PM. The small museum provided interesting insight into the history of the people with a long link to these lands. They seem to have gotten the short shrift of funding and land over the most recent three hundred years.

Several small craft shops and a large family oriented restaurant surround the museum. We  were the only non-locals at dinner and thoroughly enjoyed lamb stew served with delicious blue corn pan bread.

Having read that camping was allowed in an area next door, we asked when paying our bill and the answer was "yes, and there is no charge." There is probably room for ten RV's among stone picnic tables and small trees between the restaurant and an abandoned building. It was just us and a trio of hungry looking dogs using the campsite. I was a little worried, but it was a quiet night and the dogs had gone elsewhere by morning.

If you are traversing this area of Arizona, the pan bread alone is worth a stop.