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A hike to Horseshoe Bend, near Page, Arizona, with Dineh Tours
Sustainable Travel on the Navajo Nation
The Navajo Nation in northern Arizona encompasses a profoundly beautiful landscape, painted in a turquoise and adobe palette as far as the eye can see. When the Colorado River carved out the Grand Canyon, it sliced through many miles of red rock country to sculpt Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon, some of the most extraordinary natural wonders in the world.
The Navajo own more than 27,000 square miles in Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, more than Rhode Island, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Delaware combined. With the exception of the Grand Canyon, which runs adjacent, this haunting southwestern landscape is home to over 250,000 Navajo people. (In total, there are over 450,000 Navajo, the largest Native American tribe in the United States.)
Nothing brings the land and indigenous culture alive like being guided and hosted by the Navajo themselves, together with Navajo Parks and Recreation,a the national park service for the Navajo Nation. In the area known as the Four Corners, outside Page, Arizona, the Navajo own and operate a growing number of tourism businesses, many family-run in this tight-knit community. They open their land, share traditional foods and hospitality, offer guided tours through the majestic slot canyons and horseback riding around Horseshoe Bend. They share their music and culture of story-telling. For visitors, it can be a life-changing experience.
A Navajo guide gives an impromptu concert amid the incredible acoustics of Antelope Canyon.
Sustainable Travel Immersed in Nature
Driving north of Flagstaff near Cameron, a small town about an hour and a half from the Grand Canyon's South Rim, sisters Brenda and Velda Begay of Tsé Bighanilini Tours point out breathtaking views in the direction of Lake Powell and the Vermilion Cliffs. Mesquite and sagebrush dot the sandstone cliffs. Signs for “Navajo Arts and Crafts for Sale,” point to small stands where Navajo artists and jewelry makers sell their work.
Cameron Trading Post, a roadside restaurant, features fry bread, Navajo tacos, elk burgers, venison stew and local trout, and it is well worth a stop. There are vegetarian dishes, too: three sisters (corn, beans and squash), pumpkin bread or sumac pudding, with berries, agave and sumac. The Trading Post is also an indigenous retail hub that carries beautiful hand-woven blankets, jewelry, clothing.
A mid-afternoon walk through Owl Canyon with Black Streak Canyon Tours.
Pulling into Page, Arizona, mid-afternoon is a perfect time to tour Owl and Rattlesnake canyons with Black Streak Canyon Tours. Most visitors to Northern Arizona tend to bypass these lesser-known canyons, and that is a big mistake. Owl and Rattlesnake are smaller than the flashier Upper and Lower Antelope canyons, for sure, but each holds its own special attraction. Chances are, you and your knowledgeable guide will be the only visitors. If you are lucky, Owl Canyon will share something priceless. Look up and you may see a huge owl peering down at you like a statue, perched on the rust-red rock.
Stay in a Sustainable Navajo Hogan
For an experience unlike any other, book a stay in a hogan at Shash Diné EcoRetreat, a Native American off-the-grid glamping retreat on a private ranch on the Navajo Nation.
The simple exterior of a traditional hogan belies the warmth and comfort within.
The hogan is a traditional Navajo dwelling, according to Baya Meehan, owner of Shash Diné (Diné means “Bear People,” which is what the Navajo call themselves), and it holds a place of cultural and spiritual significance. The Shash Diné hogans were constructed from juniper logs by a master craftsman, then covered with mud or clay. “No screws or nails hold the logs together, they’re simply placed correctly,” she says. “For us, a hogan is like coming back to your roots, or grandma’s house.” There is a male and female style (the female is octagonal, the male is more of a conical shape) which is representative of the duality of life, she says: “More like yin and yang, less directly related to traditional gender.”
In addition to two hogans at Shash Diné, guests can choose between three glamping tents, one “kyoob”—a modern cube-shaped structure—or two sheepherder wagons (restored from actual 19th-century trail wagons).
Inside the "Kyoob" (Cube) at Shash Dine, a modern accommodation on the property.
“Shash Diné is so beautiful and serene,” says Sherry L. Rupert, CEO, American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association (AIANTA). “And it can be life-changing. They teach you that you can live without a 30-minute shower, a heater, or air-conditioning.” Depending on the season, temperatures can be quite comfortable; spring and fall are perfect times to go.
Navajo Dinner and Sustainable Storytelling
Meehan lives on the ranch with her husband and children, who care for a herd of grazing Navajo Churro Sheep and Angora Goats, along with several very friendly Great Pyrenees. When it’s time, she shears the sheep and gives the wool to local weavers. The puppies find homes with local farmers and ranchers.
View from inside the hogan.
She prepares dinner, which could be a delicious lamb and squash stew soaked up with fry bread, followed by vibrant storytelling and drumming. In the remote setting, the full moon radiates a bright light, the sky is thick with stars and there is an unearthly quiet as you tuck under a handwoven Navajo blanket, fire crackling in the wood stove, sipping Navajo tea–made with Green Thread, a flowering plant with a long stem that is chopped, then roasted.
It’s not for everyone. You need a taste for the rustic, a deep curiosity and an adventurous spirit. There is a shared bathhouse (with modern sinks and showers), an outhouse and the hogans have dirt floors. The home-cooked food is delicious, but you don’t get to choose from a menu. Nonetheless, a stay at Shash Diné offers a deep dive into Navajo culture, and it may just be the best vacation you never knew you needed. In this otherworldly landscape, of this earth and not of this earth, everything is off the grid because, “The point of being here is to connect with nature,” says Meehan. “People are in love with the idea that Native Americans are so connected to the earth,” she continues. “But we all are. Everyone is. And regardless of who you are, that’s what everyone needs.”
A morning hike with Shash Dine owner Baya Meehan
The morning may bring a sunrise hike, followed by breakfast–corn porridge, fresh fruit, coffee or more Navajo tea–then a long-anticipated visit to Upper and Lower Antelope canyons. Antelope Canyon starts or ends at Lake Powell and goes on for 18 miles, with curved red rock formations carved deep into the earth, though of course, visitors only explore a small part of it.
Explore the Slot Canyons on the Navajo Nation
A Lower Antelope Canyon Tour, with Dixie’s Lower Antelope Tours, begins with a 74-foot descent down five flights of stairs into the canyon–carved by wind, water and erosion–followed by a climb on ladders with handrails through 1.1 miles, all easily traversed with the right shoes. A tour of Upper Antelope with Tsé Bighanilini Tours (”the place where water runs through rocks”) features a few narrow passageways and ends with a beautiful 20-minute hike around the top of the canyon. Touring the canyons with Navajo guides not only provides personal history and cultural context, there may be singing, an exquisite acoustical experience in this setting.
Depending on the time of day you can catch a sunbeam—or moonbeam—in the canyons.
If you go in the early afternoon, the light shoots in like a sunbeam, and reflections from the sky may lend a haunting bluish tinge. Sunlight reflects back on the surrounding sandstone cliffs, painting a new picture every minute. The Navajo call it “where water makes a picture of itself in the stone,” and it is truly humbling.
End the day at the Red Heritage Indigenous Entertainment Hall in Page, and savor green pork chili, Navajo fry bread, beans and rice while watching traditional hoop dance drumming, weaving demonstrations.
Dinner at Red Heritage offers several choices and may include a Navajo taco.
Travelers are left filled with respect and awe for people whose old ways and time-tried knowledge of land stewardship and sustainable practices have a lot to teach us about forging deeper connections in our modern world. “We just do what Mother Nature allows us to,” says Tilford Bedoni, co-owner of Dineh Tours, offering awe-inspiring tours of Horseshoe Bend and Upper and Lower Antelope canyons.
The beginning of the Grand Canyon
Everything on the Navajo Nation is owned and operated by the tribal people, keeping it in “the family” so to speak, which provides economic development and enables them to control their own narrative. Meanwhile, visitors gain unique access to remote land and forge one-on-one connections with generous and hospitable Navajo tour guides, hotel and restaurant owners, designers and craftspeople who open a wide window to their culture, land and traditions—and a truly life-changing experience that is uniquely at one with nature. “I don’t curate anything,” says Meehan. “The land speaks for itself.”
How to Book Sustainable Travel with the Navajo
There are 574 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and villages, according to the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association (AIANTA). Not all host sustainable travel experiences, but fortunately, many do. It’s easy to book a trip through nativeamerica.travel. In the Navajo Nation area near Page, AZ, the award-winning Navajo tour operators highlighted in this story all offer an incredible experience.
