Itinerary

Land late in the afternoon in the sunny Southwest metropolis of Phoenix, and head to your stunning hotel in the city’s affluent suburb of Scottsdale. Boasting majestic mountains, towering saguaros, and Old West energy, Scottsdale offers a unique blend of luxury, relaxation and adventure. Get checked in and head to the Old Town for dinner before calling it a night.

Start your journey with a visit to two of Arizona’s best museums for Native American culture. The internationally-renowned Heard Museum offers an in-depth look at Native American history, and the Pueblo Grande Museum Archaeological Park – renamed as the S’edav Va’aki Museum – takes you back in time to a 1,500 year old archaeological site left by the Hohokam people.

Spend the rest of the day on a half-day city tour of Phoenix. Arizona’s capital is a cultural and culinary powerhouse that’s well worth exploring, and you’ll get to see the downtown, the time-honoured capitol building, Scottsdale Old Town (if you haven’t already been), and the historic Biltmore hotel and neighbourhood, designed by the renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

After an early breakfast, make your way along the Apache Trail to Globe, where you’ll get to see prehistoric pueblos and remnants of the former Wild West before ultimately driving over to the Zuni Indian Reservation in New Mexico. You’ll be on the road most of the day, so you’ll want to get an early start on your journey to make the most of it. You’ll ultimately be arriving at the Inn at Halona, a cosy, Southwestern-styled inn right in the heart of the Reservation. Get settled in and get a bite to eat or sit out on the patio watching the stars before calling it a night.

Start your morning with the Inn’s signature breakfast of blue cornmeal pancakes – they’re delicious and make use of the local blue corn crops – before a full day out learning about the local Zuni culture. The Zuni refer to themselves as the ‘A:shiwi’, and you’ll get an introduction to their culture at the community’s museum which features an exhibit on the ancestral village of Hawikku, better known as the first place of European contact in the Southwest.

You’ll be led by a Native guide on an archaeological tour around Hawikku and the Village of the Great Kivas – a nearby Chacoan Outlier with petroglyphs and pictographs from the ancient Chaco people that illustrates the development of Zuni culture.

End the day with a tour of a Zuni Artist Workshop, gaining access to some of the tribe’s finest artists and learning about traditional Zuni arts from a local expert.

Located at the crossroads of three tribal reservations – the Hopi, the Navajo and the Zuni – Gallup is an essential stop for immersing oneself in Native American culture. You’ll start with a stop at the spectacular El Morro National Monument – which preserves the remains of a large prehistoric pueblo atop a great sandstone promontory – and the Acoma Pueblo, the oldest continuously inhabited community in the United States, on your short drive there.

When you finally arrive in Gallup make sure to visit the many trading posts – the town is one of the USA’s last surviving Native American trading posts – and watch Native American dancers perform nightly in front of the Gallup Cultural Centre if you happen to be visiting in the summer months.

After a leisurely breakfast, travel to Canyon de Chelly. Take the backroad from Window Rock – the seat of government and capital of the Navajo Nation which you can also stop at and visit – to drive along the scenic rim drive, and get a glance of the Canyon de Chelly National Monument from one of the many overlooks. The views are spectacular, and a great introduction to where you’ll be spending the next two days.

End the day arriving at your comfortable accommodation, Thunderbird Lodge. Navajo owned and operated this historic lodge might be the only place to stay in Canyon de Chelly, but the staff make sure it doesn’t feel that way.

Get ready for your tour at 9:00am – this excursion lasts around 8 hours so you’ll be out all day, but lunch and snacks will be provided throughout. You’ll start with Canyon de Chelly – led by a knowledgeable local guide, you will travel the full length of the canyon, stopping at the base of the towering 800-foot monolith of Spider Rock whose canyon walls rise over 1,000 feet and visiting the White House Ruins in the lower canyon.

The next leg of your tour will focus on Canyon del Muerto, where the remains of prehistoric Indian burials were discovered in 1882. Once again, you’ll travel almost the full length of the canyon stopping at Mummy Cave, a partially restored ancestral complex constructed under an arching overhang in the weathered sandstone; Antelope House Ruin, where coloured drawings of antelope created at the turn of the last century sit side by side with creations from the Ancestral Pueblo; and the Navajo Fortress Rock.

Make your way over to Bluff after breakfast. Tucked between sandstone cliffs and the San Juan River, the town is rich in human history and natural beauty with. A central point along the Trail of the Ancients National Scenic Byway, Bluff is also considered the gateway to many southern Utah destinations like Bears Ears National Monument, Hovenweep National Monument, Valley of the Gods and Monument Valley.

You’ll arrive at the Bluff Dwellings Resort, set amongst the sandstone scenery, and drop off your bags before heading back out. Today will be at least partially spent discovering the archaeology and cultural landscape of the Bears Ears National Monument and its respective education centre – you’ll see cliff dwellings, historic hogans, thousands of years of rock art and modern-day ceremonial locations. The Bears Ears have been used since time immemorial by local peoples and many modern-day Pueblo tribes trace their ancestry back to its canyons and mesa tops.

Afterwards, pass by the historic Bluff Fort for a glimpse of what Mormon settlers’ pioneer life was like.

The Navajo people’s spirit is woven into Bluff’s eclectic style, and the Navajo word, “hozho”, meaning peace, harmony and beauty can be found everywhere you look in this town. Utah’s Canyon Country is filled to the brim with jaw-dropping natural beauty on a grand scale, and today you’ll get to see more of it with a guided full-day adventure. Part land-based, part river-based, this tour will take you off the beaten path into Utah’s wilderness so you can experience the area’s ancient indigenous past and spectacular natural beauty.

After breakfast make the short drive from Bluff to Monument Valley – you could even detour for the equally beautiful and less crowded Valley of the Gods along the way.

Immortalised in films of the Wild West, Monument Valley is an iconic symbol of America’s past and the heart of the Navajo Nation. Still as raw, natural and unspoiled as it was hundreds of years ago, the valley hosts towering sandstone rock formations – affectionately known as the Merrick and Mitten Buttes – that soar 400 to 1,000 feet above the valley floor and have to be seen to be believed. Couple this with surrounding mesas and vast desert expanse, and the sheer grandeur of the place is breathtaking. Brave at heart should drive up the Moki Dugway Scenic Backway to get there as the reward will be a packed lunch on top of the mesa overlooking Monument Valley.

Come late afternoon head to your accommodation set amongst the stunning red rock landscape, Goulding’s Lodge, where you’ll join a Navajo-guided sunset tour of Monument Valley.

After an early breakfast, head to the town of Page to see the otherworldly beauty of Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend. Two locations that are like nowhere else on earth, both have been shaped by water over many hundreds, if not thousands, of years, each location is like nowhere else on earth, and you’ll get to see both on a combined tour.

In the evening, discover the cultural, musical and gastronomic traditions of one of the largest and oldest Native American tribes in the United States, the Navajo, at the Red Heritage Dinner Show.

Make the 2-hour drive over the Grand Canyon South Rim this morning at your leisure. Revealing millions of years of geological history, this vast rift in the Colorado Plateau is one of the world’s most recognisable natural landmarks, and has to be seen to be believed. You’ll be staying on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon at what is widely considered the crown jewel of Historic National Park Lodges, El Tovar. Sit back and take in the spectacular views, or hike or take a shuttle bus down into the canyon to spend some time exploring. The South Rim has countless viewpoints, trails and the Yavapai Observation Station, not to mention various guided excursions can be booked with the help of the staff at your lodge.

Drive first thing in the morning down to Prescott. Once a quintessential Wild West town, Prescott is now one of Arizona’s most beautiful historic cities, nestled at an elevation of 5,200 feet amongst the largest stand of ponderosa pine forests in the United States.

Arrive at the famous Hassayampa Inn right in the heart of the downtown historic district, where many of the buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Drop off your bags and admire the hotels’ impressive details dating back to the ‘roaring twenties’ before spending the day exploring this charming Old West town. Besides the downtown historic district, a visit to Whiskey Row, a full block of historic bars and saloons where some of America’s famous cowboys and outlaws drank. Other highlights include a stop in the Museum of Indigenous People and an 8-minute drive just outside of Prescott for a hike along the Prescott Peavine National Recreation Trail, home to the breathtaking Watson Lake.