Some of the most beautiful scenery in the world belongs to the Navajo Nation, a territory of Native Americans in Utah and Arizona within the USA.

Continuing from my last entry, I was feeling pretty tired on my way across Utah, but pushed on. At this point I really didn’t have a plan. When you’re driving around the desert, the sense of openness and freedom makes you feel like you can go anywhere. I honestly wished that I was riding a horse instead of driving a car, just for the atmosphere.

I was on my way to Page, Arizona, home of Antelope Canyon, easily one of the most unique canyons in the world. As I crossed the state border I saw the environment start to change a little. Historically, the Native Americans have been famous for their desire to preserve nature and deeply connect with the environment, so of course when I saw the huge factory in the distance emitting smog, it bothered me a lot. This was my first impression of Page, Arizona. The name was Navajo Generating Station, and it’s actually no longer operational.

Luckily, Page offered other beautiful things to see. This is including the famous Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado River, the place where I first stopped. There’s nothing really here, just a photo opportunity, although the view will leave you speechless. I snapped my photo, took in the scenery, got back in my car, and drove off to the main part of the town.

After stopping to eat, I saw that the Navajo had all kinds of tours to Antelope Canyon. I asked a woman if the tours were operating but they were closed for the day. I was too late. On road trips, I don’t have much patience, so I decided that Antelope Canyon would have to wait. I continued driving, hugging the border between the two states, headed towards the famous Monument Valley.

The sun was setting as my car approached the alien rocks in the desert landscape. Monument Valley is a big open space with gigantic rock formations of strange solitary shapes standing in the endless wilderness. I took a few pictures, and drove on to a small funny town close by called Mexican Hat, which gets its name from the shape of a nearby rock. Believe it or not, the desert is chilly at night and I felt a cold coming on stronger than ever. I parked in the Mexican Hat Lodge and spent the night.

In the hotel, the receptionist was of course Navajo. She was a young girl and we chatted for a few hours. I got to know a little about Navajo culture, but what surprised me the most is when she said that she didn’t speak the Navajo language. When I asked her why, she told me that her grandparents did, but she didn’t have the patience to learn. In modern society, it’s a dead language. To me, it was like I was living a history lesson and personally seeing the effects of what happened as a result of 1492. Seeing the destruction of a beautiful culture up close is an unfortunate experience to carry forever.

I left Mexican Hat Lodge in the morning and said goodbye to Monument Valley and Navajo Nation. After some hours driving north, I arrived in a city called Moab, famous for its extreme outdoor sports, and I sat down for a beer and hamburger.

The purpose of going to Moab was to see two more national parks, Canyonlands and Arches, two vast and expansive landscapes which are totally different from each other. Like Bryce, both seemed like they were from another world, more like somewhere on Mars.

Unfortunately, my cold finally caught up to me. I was too tired to hike, and I had to rest. I wanted be closer to Vegas in case something went wrong, and I had so many more places on my list including Antelope Canyon, so I sadly abandoned Moab and the two national parks and drove hundreds of miles south, across the empty desert, coughing and sneezing, to Flagstaff, Arizona. There, I stayed in a hotel, trying to recover, eating spectacular Mexican food.

I finally felt good enough to explore after two or three days and wanted to get a few more adventures in. I was ready to return to Page to visit Antelope Canyon.

I reserved my tour this time which left around 2 PM. All of my tour guides were Navajo, leading the adventure into the small canyon, hidden across large amounts of sand, far from civilization. Millions of years old, the canyon was formed from large amounts of rainwater flowing through, creating carvings on the sandstone walls. It was another world.

My trip had nearly come to an end, but there was just one more destination for me to check off. This was the grandest one of all. It wasn’t as elegant as Antelope Canyon, or as peculiar as Bryce, but it was more famous than both. I didn’t devote so much time to it this trip, but one day I hope to return to hike to the bottom, maybe even for a few days. Of course, I’m talking about the Grand Canyon.

If I could take something away from this journey that really opened my eyes, it’s how, for centuries, American society has absolutely trashed the Native American people and cultures. Driving through these towns, I saw extremely poor communities, struggling to survive, forced into the tourism industry and promoting their sacred lands as nature-based theme parks. While it’s fun to visit these places, the Navajo Nation has the highest rate of poverty in the United States through no fault of their own. We have to do better.

The Navajo Nation

Finally Free: Guanacaste

The Enchanting Colorado Plateau