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Ocean County
College
Native American Southwest Travel Seminar, March 2010
Arizona,
Colorado,
Utah,
New Mexico
Sat. March 27:
Fly from Philadelphia, PA
to Phoenix.
Transfer to our private vans and drive to
Holbrook, Arizona.
Overnight at Holbrook Relax Inn Travelodge.
Sun. March 28:
Continental breakfast included.
Navajo Nation: Hubble
Trading Post, 4x4 tour of Canyon de Chelly, Arizona.
Travel to Ganado and visit the Hubbell National Historical
Site, the oldest continuously operating trading post on the Navajo
Nation and a great place to see Navajo rugs and jewelry from the various
geographical areas of the reservation.
From Ganado, go to Chinle for lunch at the Thunderbird Lodge.
Then a Navajo guided half day 4X4 tour of spectacular Canyon
de Chelly National Monument, located on Navajo Tribal Trust Lands and
famous for its
well preserved Anasazi ruins and ancient rock art.
Aside from its
outstanding thirteenth century cliff dwellings and petroglyphs,
the Canyon gives us
the opportunity to gain insight into the living community of
Navajo people who still cultivate the valley floor.
Overnight at Canyon de Chelly Holiday Inn, Chinle, Arizona, in
the heart of the Navajo Nation.
Holiday Inn provides a restaurant for dining.
(B)
Mon. March 29:
Full Breakfast included.
Travel to Page, Arizona.
Navajo guided tour of Antelope Canyon, Lake Powell Dinner Cruise.
One of the most photographic landscapes in the U.S., Antelope
Canyon is a slot canyon located in the high sandstone desert of Northern
Arizona, near the Glen Canyon Dam.
The photo opportunities here are unsurpassed.
That evening we take a cruise on Lake Powell and have a
gourmet dinner on board while marveling at the magnificent scenery of
Glen Canyon.
Overnight at the Best Western Lake Powell.
(B,D)
Tues. March30:
Full breakfast
included.
Boxed lunch included.
Navajo Nation: Navajo
Guided Monument Valley Tour.
In
Monument Valley we will take a tour of the magnificent buttes and
canyons, used as a backdrop for many western films and commercial
advertisements.
On our way to Cortez we will stop at the Twin Rocks Trading
Post, possibly the nicest trading post on the Navajo reservation.
Overnight at Super 8, Cortez, Colorado.
(B, L)
Wed. March 31:
Continental breakfast included.
Mesa Verde National
Park.
Site of the most extensive Anasazi archaeological ruins in the
West, Mesa Verde preserves a wide array of prehistoric Native American
cliff dwellings built high on mesa tops or defensively tucked into the
canyon’s crevices, including
Sun Temple and Cliff
Palace.
Dwellings range from pre-Chacoan pit houses starting in the AD
500’s to Chacoan villages on the mesa top, to post Chacoan cliff
dwellings erected in the AD 1200’s, tracing the growth and development
of Mesa Verde life and architecture over seven centuries.
Overnight at Bloomfield Super 8.
(B)
Thurs. April 1:
Continental breakfast.
Aztec Archaeological
Ruins, Chaco Canyon World
Heritage Site, New Mexico.
Boxed lunch included.
Aztec is a post Chaco Canyon site and important in the Chacoan
time line.
We will make a quick stop at Aztec on our way to Chaco.
Aztec has the best restored great Kiva in the U.S. where we
will learn about great Kivas (huge underground ceremonial chambers), and
then carry our knowledge to Chaco.
Chaco Canyon was a major center of Anasazi ancestral Puebloan
culture, a hub for trade, ritual, and administration for the Four
Corners area from AD 850 to 1150.
This secluded canyon preserves the magnificent ruins of the
ancient monumental buildings, kivas, astronomical alignments, and
Chaco’s ancient system of roads, irrigation canals, and dams.
The sites are part of the sacred homeland of the Puebloan
people.
Overnight Comfort Inn, Grants, New Mexico, home of La Ventana
restaurant, serving the best steaks in New Mexico (B, L)
Fri. April 2:
Continental breakfast included.
Lunch
included. Living Pueblo Indian
Tribes.
Native guided tour of Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico, and the Spanish
mission built in 1629.
Known as “Sky
City”, Acoma Pueblo was a Chacoan outlier, built in the AD 1100’s atop a
high sandstone mesa for defense against raiders.
It is the
oldest continuously inhabited city in the U.S.
After our visit to Sky City we will pick up
boxed lunches and travel to Zuni Pueblo and tour Old Zuni Mission to see the world famous murals of Zuni ceremonial Kachinas, as
well as visit a Zuni Trading Post to appreciate the wide array of
beautiful Zuni arts and crafts.
Zuni was the first native settlement visited in 1540 by Spanish explorer
Coronado, who thought it was one of the legendary Seven Golden Cities of
Cíbola.
The inhabitants of Acoma and Zuni Pueblos are the direct descendants
of the ancient Anasazi and were established on the heels of the collapse
of the Chacoan Empire.
Overnight at Reed’s Lodge, Springerville, Arizona. .
(B, L)
Sat. April 3:
Scenic drive back to
Phoenix, via the White
Mountains, Fort Apache and the silver and copper mining towns of Globe
and Superior.
Located in the heart of Apache country, Fort Apache
preserves the history of both conflict and cooperation between the U.S.
government and the various bands of the Western Apache and their leaders
Geronimo and Cochise.
We will pass through the magnificent and rugged Salt River
Canyon on our way back to Phoenix.
We will stop in the Sonoran Desert along the way and give you
an introduction to this most diverse of all the world’s deserts.
Overnight at the Airport Sleep Inn, Phoenix, Arizona.
Sun. April 4:
Continental breakfast included.
Transfer to Airport included.
Flight from Phoenix to
Philadelphia.
(B)
Please note that Ocean County College and/or Walk Softly Tours
may make changes in
this itinerary if, in their judgment, conditions warrant or if they deem
it necessary for the comfort, convenience or safety of the tour.
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