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Southwest Four Corners Learning Expedition

September 27–October 4, 2008

DAILY DETAILS

Arizona State Museum's Southwest 4 Corners Learning Expedition includes seven and a half days of travel and exploration of the prehistory and history of the Native peoples of the Colorado Plateau, also known as the 4 Corners. The expedition includes Chuck Adams and Rich Lange, experts on the archaeology and history of the area. We will visit the most famous and best preserved ruins representing almost 1500 years of history to the modern Pueblo people. A highlight of the expedition will be the opportunity to visit some of the most traditional of these descendants, the Hopi Indians, where Chuck lived and worked more than 20 years ago. The expedition will travel in 15-passenger vans and beverages, snacks, and lunches will be provided in the vans. Participants are encouraged to bring one suitcase each. We will be staying at modern motels and eat in associated restaurants during the trip. Accomodations are listed with phone numbers on the Itinerary.

Day 1 (9/27/08, Saturday)

This day's focus will be to acquaint the expedition participants with the desert Southwest, but also to introduce them to the Hopi, inheritors of many of the traditions of the Arizona portion of the Colorado Plateau. Highlight of this day will be the orientation and tour of the Arizona State Museum to view their collections, including behind-the-scenes looks at the Pot Room and the Homol'ovi Project's research laboratory. There will be time to visit the Museum shop and bookstore. The group will eat dinner in Tucson, and then drive to Phoenix to spend the night.

Day 2 (9/28/08, Sunday)

Day 2 will bring the group to the Colorado Plateau and a tour of the Museum of Northern Arizona.  At MNA we will learn about the people, biology, and geology of the area and how dependent the people of the plateau were on their environment for survival. MNA also has an excellent shop and bookstore.

After lunch, we will travel to Homol'ovi Ruins State Park to visit enormous ancestral Hopi ruins dating to the 1300s. Adams and Lange have conducted research in this area since 1985. The expedition will be treated to a detailed view of how one does modern archaeology, how these ancient ruins are preserved through modern techniques, and how we know these ruins are ancestral to the Hopi.  In addition to ruins, there is abundant rock art in the Homol'ovi area. The Park has an excellent bookstore.

We will visit the refurbished La Posada Hotel in Winslow, designed by Mary Colter, whose other architectural works are featured at the Grand Canyon.

Day 3 (9/29/08, Monday)

Today the expedition will spend the morning on the Hopi Mesas and the afternoon visiting the Hubbell Trading Post. The Hopi have lived continuously in or near the present villages since at least the 1200's. Walpi was founded about 1690 and continues in use to this day. Chuck conducted 18 months of excavations at this village during an extensive restoration project. We will receive a tour from a local resident of Walpi.

There will be shopping opportunities in the First Mesa villages as well as at Keam's Canyon. From Keam's we will travel to Ganado on the Navajo Reservation. In Ganado is the Hubbell Trading Post, built in the 1870's by a famous trader to the Navajos and Hopi. This trading post is now operated by the National Park Service and offers glimpses of what the area was like at the turn-of-the-century. We will tour the Hubbell house and get a lecture on Navajo rugs. Hubbell's has world class Navajo rugs and jewelry.

From Hubbell's we travel to Chinle, a town on the Navajo Reservation at the entrance to Canyon de Chelly. Dinner and lodging will be in Chinle. Time on the Navajo Reservation and in Colorado and New Mexico is one hour ahead of Arizona time.

Day 4 (9/30/08, Tuesday)

Today we will step back farther in time to the cliff dwellings of Canyon de Chelly dating to the 1100s and 1200s and to spectacular ruins of outliers to the Chaco Culture of northwest New Mexico, dating from about 1075-1150.

The Canyon de Chelly tour will be in a Navajo tribal tour vehicle with a Navajo guide who will spend the morning with us touring the 1000 foot high red rock canyons of the de Chelly, which are filled with cliff dwellings and rock art. Lunch will be at the Thunderbird Lodge.

When we leave de Chelly, we will follow the rim of the canyon, stopping at the overlook to 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 to the amazing Chaco Canyon culture, the focus of Day 5.

After leaving Skunk Springs we will head to our evening meal and lodging in Farmington, New Mexico.

Day 5 (10/1/08, Wednesday)

Day 5 will be spent at Chaco Canyon, the location of the most complex prehistoric culture to develop on the Colorado Plateau. One of the most remarkable aspects of Chaco culture is its isolated, desolate location.

We will start in the National Park Service's museum and visitor center and then visit the enormous ruin complex of Pueblo Bonito, which has over 600 rooms, walls 30 feet high and ceremonial structures, called kivas, 75 feet in diameter. We will also visit Chetro Ketl and Casa Rinconada, an isolated great kiva. We will also learn about the sophisticated astronomy of the Chaco people who reached their zenith between 1075 and 1130

We will leave Chaco mid-afternoon and travel to Cortez, Colorado for our evening meal and lodging.

Day 6 (10/2/08, Thursday)

Day 6 will be spent in Mesa Verde National Park, the oldest national park devoted to archaeology in the United States. The day will begin at the wonderful museum and bookstore and will involve a number of activities, dependent on rain and scheduling. The activities involve an easy hike to Spruce Tree House, dating to the 1200s, as do all Mesa Verde cliff dwellings. And we will travel the ruins road visiting ancient settlements spanning over 700 years (A.D. 600-1300). Our visit will include a tour of Cliff Palace, the largest cliff dwelling in the U.S., at over 200 rooms. If time permits we will also visit Balcony House, one of the best preserved, and most spectacular of the MesaVerde cliff dwellings.

After leaving Mesa Verde, we will drive over to Bluff UT to be in position for the raft trip on Friday.

Day 7 (10/3/08, Friday)

We will take a raft trip down the San Juan River that will take most of the day, viewing rock art and small cliff dwellings. We will stop at the Butler Wash rock art panel, which includes 8-foot high shamanistic figures pecked into the rock at least 1500 years ago. We will also hike to a beautifully preserved cliff dwelling that includes spectacular painted pictographs, and a burned kiva. We may also see small groups of bighorn sheep along the river!

On our way to Kayenta for dinner, we will stop to take photos of Monument Valley.

Then, on to Cameron Trading Post for our lodging.

Day 8 (10/4/08, Saturday)

Depart for home; those who have arranged to leave from Phoenix can be dropped off at Sky Harbor airport. Those of us returning to Tucson should be back early to mid afternoon.

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