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Four Corners Learning Expedition

September 25–October 2, 2010

Expedition Overview

Arizona State Museum’s Four Corners Learning Expedition is seven and a half days of travel through the Colorado Plateau (aka Four Corners region) and exploration through the prehistory and history of the Puebloan peoples.

Led by ASM scholars and archaeologists Chuck Adams and Rich Lange, you will visit the some of the most famous and best-preserved ruins, and will experience almost 1,500 years of human history. A highlight of the expedition is a visit to the traditional village of Walpi at First Mesa on the Hopi Indian Reservation.

The expedition travels in 15-passenger vans, copiously loaded each day with iced beverages and snacks. Generous picnic lunches are provided on the days that we can’t visit restaurants.

Each participant is strongly encouraged to bring just one suitcase as space in the vehicles is limited and because some of the hotels do not have elevators. Please be sure you will be able to personally carry your own luggage.

All dinners are on your own each evening. Other meals that are on your own are indicated on the itinerary.

Day 1
After an orientation and some time to get acquainted with one another, this day’s focus is to introduce expedition participants to the desert Southwest and the Hopi Indians. Highlights include a tour of Arizona State Museum’s collections and laboratories relating specifically to the Colorado Plateau. Of course, there will be time to visit the museum store! The group will dine early in Tucson and then drive to Phoenix to spend the night.

Day 2
Day 2 brings the group onto the Colorado Plateau, beginning with a visit to the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, AZ.  At MNA you will learn about the people, biology, and geology of the area. MNA has a very nice museum gift shop and book store.

After your picnic lunch on the museum grounds, the group will proceed to Homol’ovi Ruins State Park (near Winslow, AZ) to visit the ruins of ancestral Hopi villages dating to the 1300s. Adams and Lange have conducted research in this area since 1985 and have a wealth of information to share. In addition to ruins, there is abundant rock art in the Homol'ovi area which you will also visit. The park’s visitor center has an excellent book store.

The day will wrap up at the refurbished La Posada Hotel in Winslow. Built as a Fred Harvey hotel in 1929, La Posada was the last of the Harvey chain, designed by the famous architect Mary Colter. Some of her other Southwest-inspired buildings are featured at the Grand Canyon.

Day 3
Today, after a photo stop at the Little Painted Desert, the expedition visits the traditional village of Walpi at First Mesa on the Hopi Indian Reservation. The Hopi have lived continuously in or near their present villages since at least the 1200s. Walpi was founded c. 1690 and continues in use to this day. Adams was the principal investigator at this village during an extensive restoration project, 1975-82. The guided tour of Walpi will be given by a local resident. If we’re lucky, there will be other residents with pottery and carvings for sale.

You will enjoy another shopping opportunity at Keam's Canyon, where we will picnic for lunch. From Keam's Canyon we will proceed to Ganado on the Navajo Reservation for a visit to the historic Hubbell Trading Post, built in the 1870s by the famous Lorenzo Hubbell, trader to the Navajos and Hopi. The trading post is now operated by the National Park Service, which does a wonderful job at preserving the turn-of-the-century atmosphere. A Park Ranger will give us a tour of Hubbell House.

Hubbell has high-quality Navajo rugs, pottery, and jewelry for sale, plus books, gifts, and snacks.

From Hubbell Trading Post we travel to Chinle, a town on the Navajo Reservation, at the entrance to Canyon de Chelly. Dinner and lodging will be in Chinle, at the colorful Thunderbird Lodge.

Note: Be sure to change your watches -- you are now on Daylight Savings Time, one hour ahead of Arizona time.

Day 4
Today, with the help of an expert Navajo guide, we will step farther back in time by entering Canyon de Chelly. The canyon’s 1000-foot red rock walls are the setting for cliff dwellings and rock art dating to the 11-1200s, and spectacular ruins dating to the Chaco Canyon culture, c. 1075-1150.

After the truck tour of Canyon de Chelly, you will enjoy lunch at the Thunderbird Lodge cafeteria.

When we leave CdC we will follow the rim of the canyon, stopping at the overlook to see Mummy Cave. This road takes us to Tsaile Lake, home of one of the Navajo Nation’s community colleges. We will then drive along the west flank of the beautiful Chuska Mountains, which are of volcanic origin. We will cross the Chuskas using Washington Pass and descend into ­the desolate San Juan Basin of northwest New Mexico. We will take a brief detour to Skunk Springs, which is an outlier pueblo dating to the fascinating Chaco Canyon culture (the focus of Day 5).

After leaving Skunk Springs we will head to our evening lodging in Farmington, NM.

Day 5
Day 5 is spent at Chaco Canyon, the presumed “central place” of the most enigmatic and complex culture to develop in the prehistoric American Southwest. One of the most remarkable aspects of this culture, which reached its zenith between 1075 and 1130, is the purported use of astronomical alignments in its architecture. We will start in the National Park Service’s visitor center (good book store!) and museum and then visit the enormous ruin of Pueblo Bonito. We will also visit other significant sites in the canyon as time permits.

We will leave Chaco Canyon mid-afternoon with a brief stop at Aztec Ruin in Bloomfield, NM, and then travel on to Mancos, CO for our evening meal.

Our lodging will be in Cortez, CO.

Day 6
Day 6 is spent in Mesa Verde National Park, the oldest national park devoted to archaeology in the United States. The day will begin at the wonderful visitor center and bookstore. Our activities involve an easy hike to the 13th century cliff dwelling Spruce Tree House, and visits to pit houses and pueblos spanning more than 700 years (A.D. 600-1300). Our visit also includes a tour of Cliff Palace, which at more than 200 rooms is the largest cliff dwelling in the U.S., and Balcony House, one of the best preserved and most spectacular of Mesa Verde’s attractions.

Dinner will be at Nero’s Italian restaurant in Cortez, CO and then we will continue on to Bluff, UT for our lodging. 

Day 7
Today is the day of our river rafting adventure! A serene drift down the San Juan River with expert and entertaining boatmen will reveal spectacular geological formations, prehistoric rock art and small cliff dwellings. After leaving the river we drive through Monument Valley to our dinner in Cameron, AZ.

Lodging is at Cameron Trading Post (gift shop open til 10 p.m.). You are now back on Arizona time so you’ll want to set your watches back one hour.

Day 8
Depart for home after breakfast. Those who have made arrangements to depart from the Phoenix airport will be dropped off. Lunch will be along the way. Those of us returning to Tucson will be back in town by mid afternoon.

NOTE: To be safe, please don’t make your plane reservations out of Tucson before 5 p.m.

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