Indigenous tourism often includes a trip to a native history museum; but to bring the culture alive, consider hiring a native guide for a hands-on adventure on Navajo Nation land.
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The Navajo Nation owns 16 million acres of raw and stunning land in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. On much of it, the Colorado River carves masterfully through the slot canyons, forming the great Lake Powell and iconic topography like Horseshoe Bend in Glen Canyon.
With Page, Arizona, as your basecamp, you have access to more than 40 national parks, recreation areas and monuments. In Canyon Country (where the Four Corners of Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico meet), you can take a horseback ride on Navajo land with a tribal guide, soar above Lake Powell with a Navajo pilot or rent a boat from a marina owned by the Navajo Nation.
Citizens of the Navajo Nation work in every aspect of tourism here and are eager to share stories of their heritage. The cooler days of fall are a good time to visit Page, either by car or by flying into Phoenix and taking a short-hop commuter flight to Page Airport.
Book a room at the Hyatt Place Page/Lake Powell, and you get the added bonus of free Navajo storytelling sessions and dreamcatcher workshops. The Hyatt Place is a stand-out hotel in the Hyatt chain, with its own adventure concierge and on-site Prickly Pear Kitchen for locally-sourced dishes and handcrafted margaritas.
In autumn, you can rent a discounted houseboat from the Navajo-owned Antelope Point Marina on Lake Powell. They also offer guided boat tours and kayaking through the towering cliffs and quiet canyons of the second-largest manmade reservoir in the United States.
Year-round, you can ride horseback on Navajo land high above the iconic Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado River. The Navajo wranglers at the family-owned Horseshoe Bend Trail Rides can take you onto sacred tribal land, where you can learn the importance of everything from the horse’s mane (it represents rain clouds that nurture the earth) to arrowheads (said to protect the Navajo people and all other life).
At Page Airport, take a small plane over Lake Powell, Glen Canyon Dam and the impressive rock formations and buttes in the region with IKG, the only Navajo-owned air tour company. A popular flight includes a birds-eye view of The Wave, the undulating striped sandstone shaped by extreme weather on the desert dunes over the course of about 190 million years.
Kayakers and campers have easy access to the clear, slow-moving waters of the Colorado River through Glen Canyon. No permits are necessary to enjoy this northern neighbor of the Grand Canyon, where you can spend many lazy hours paddling past wild horses, sand beaches and marbled cliffs.
Kayaks are available for rent at Lees Ferry where companies like Kayak the Colorado take passengers and their gear several miles upriver for their trip downstream. Evenings in Page offer more opportunities to learn about local culture. The Red Heritage Native American dinner show serves up Navajo fry bread with toppings while diners enjoy local talent performing powwow dances, native drumming, storytelling and flute playing.
Back at the Hyatt Place Page/Lake Powell, guests are immersed in stories told by a local legend, Eli Secody, who incorporates Navajo songs and drumming into his rich tribal folklore. He talks about the harmony between the Navajo people, wildlife and the land.
A second weekly workshop is led by local weaver Pearl Seaton, who teaches the art of dreamcatcher weaving. Seaton patiently helps visitors choose yarn colors, beads and feathers while she shares stories of her grandparents using dreamcatchers to ward off evil spirits and create harmony in the home.
And harmony is what you’ll find in Canyon Country, where Navajo guides share their secrets to connecting, in the most meaningful way, with this incredible land.
Ginny Prior can be reached at ginnyprior@hotmail.com and followed on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Facebook and at ginnyprior.com.
FYI
Hyatt Place Page/Lake Powell has seasonal packages and weekly complimentary culture events, and Trip Advisor recently ranked Page, Arizona, at No. 2 on its list of “Trending Travel Destinations in America.” Go online to visitpageaz.com for more information.