If today’s route is leaving Winslow and our first destination is the Hopi Reservation, then you should know that you’ll be passing right through the Painted Desert.

The reason behind this drive north was to visit Kykotsmovi, Third Mesa, on the Hopi Reservation for a Kachina Dance. Photography of the event is not allowed, and it is requested that our interpretation of events not be conveyed either, so we abide by the Hopi requests so that we might be able to attend these dances for years to come.

The road to Kykotsmovi, Third Mesa, and one of the longest inhabited places in the United States.

After the dance, we had lunch at the Hopi Cultural Center and then visited the Arts and Crafts store of Tsakurshovi owned by Janice and Joseph Day near Shungopavi. My mother-in-law bought her granddaughter her first Kachina Doll and earrings for Caroline. We have been visiting Tsakurshovi for years after Duke and Sarah Kayduk of the Calf Canyon Bed & Breakfast in Bluff, Utah, recommended we visit them on Second Mesa.

We’re not done with our visit to northern Arizona and are spending the night in Chinle on the Navajo Reservation. This is Canyon De Chelly National Monument and tomorrow, we have a jeep tour down below.

A lot of planning, effort, and expense goes into these trips, and with Jutta’s visit this year lasting 65 days, we go far to ensure she leaves with a lifetime of memories and shirts she’ll wear for years to come. So, from historic, cultural, musical, artistic, natural, and moments spent with family, we know she’ll carry a ton of these experiences back to Germany with her.

Dinner and lodging were at the Thunderbird Lodge near the entrance to Canyon De Chelly.