Travel the Trails

Trip 7: US-160 East: Junction with U.S. Hwy 89 to Tuba City

11 miles (22.5 km) from the junction of U.S. 89 and U.S. 160 to Tuba City Mile 480.5

Disclaimer: NANACT trip guides are based on information from Native Roads: The Complete Motoring Guide to the Navajo & Hopi Nations, 2nd Edition by Fran Kosik (Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2005). Some information may have changed since the publication of the book. While NANACT will attempt to maintain current information, consider verifying the current operation/existence of businesses, accommodations, dining and similar interests before planning your trip.

Scenic & Historic:

MM 313 Badlands of the Painted Desert

Topping the multicolored, banded plateau at 5,500 feet (1,677 m), the highway opens to a vast, treeless expanse. Here the land changes from tawny whites to burnished red.

The Navajos call the Painted Desert halchíítah, or “Among the Colors.” An incredibly beautiful place, especially at sunrise and sunset because of the bright shades of pink, gray, and green, this colorful collection of siltstone and shales is from the Owl Rock member of the Chinle Formation, formed more than 150 to 250 million years ago.

Mile 316.5 Dinosaur Tracks (North)

Follow the signs to the roadside stands. Usually, an enterprising local Navajo will come to your car to offer services as a guide. Shake hands, introduce yourself, and the guide will show you to the tracks. A small gratuity of a couple dollars is appropriate. These tracks found in the Tuba City and Kayenta area in 1942 and other found in China in the 1980s are the world’s only evidence of “running dinosaurs,” which lived during the late Triassic/ early Jurassic eras. The Dilophosaurus was a medium-sized dinosaur weighing approximately a thousand pounds (453 kg) and standing eight to ten feet (2.4–3.1 m) tall. It had powerful hind legs for running, with forefeet that resembled a bird’s foot with four toes. The front arms were short with clawed fingers used for grasping. Although it had very sharp teeth, it probably used its hind legs and front claws to rip its prey.

The Dilophosaurus was depicted in the movie Jurassic Park as a venomspitting creature that poisoned its victims before eating them. There is no evidence that the Tuba City Dilophosaurus poisoned its prey like its Hollywood cousin.

Mile 319.5 Van's Trading Post (North)

The Vankeurens are one of the oldest trading families still operating a store in the Tuba City area. This location, at the foot of the mesa, is known to locals as Kerley Valley, named for John Kerley, another trader who was a partner in the Babbitt Bros.Trading Post in Tuba City. Finding the community of Tuba City too large for his liking, he moved to the “valley.” Built in 1921, the old post sits right next to the gas company behind the new Van’s Trading Post.

Historic Detour through Tuba City

Turn left at MM 322 and travel up Main Street. Just past the first stoplight is the Tuba Trading Post. The first Mormon settlers of the area gave this little town its moniker, naming the place after the Hopi called Tuuvi. He was from the village of Oraibi and a leader among the Moenkopi Hopi farmers. Tuuvi and his wife were the first Hopis to venture to Salt Lake City, meet Brigham Young, then-president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and convert to the Mormon religion. It was Tuuvi who gave the first fourteen Mormon families a place in the area Hopis knew as “white sands” to build their town, away from the Hopi village, on the condition that they protect the Hopis and their fields from Navajo and Paiute raids. In his honor, the Mormons named it Tuba City.

Relations between the Mormons and natives were not always placid, especially after one of the dams built by the Mormons in 1877 broke, flooding the Hopis’ crops. With the increased number of settlers moving into the area, Tuuvi told the Mormons that his people wanted to live in peace but that the settlers must stop building farms next to every available spring.

Tuba City was also a half-way station for Mormon settlers traveling south from Utah to develop communities along the Colorado River. In 1871, John D. Lee was “called” by LDS church president Brigham Young to establish a crossing on the Colorado. Situated sixty miles (97 km) north of Tuba City, Lees Ferry became the only reliable river crossing for hundreds of miles in either direction, easing an already hazardous journey for Mormon pioneers and other travelers.

In 1878, Erastus Snow platted the town of Tuba City, patterning it after a typical Mormon community, with wide streets lined by Lombardy poplars. By 1900, there were 150 settlers living in the community. Farming was the Mormons’ primary interest, and much of the area where the hospital sits today, north of Cedar Avenue, was an apple orchard.

Mormon occupation was short-lived, however, after the Tuba City area was added to the Navajo Reservation. The government pressured the Mormons to sell their homes, farms, orchards, and other improvements for a total of $48,000, and in 1904 they left for good. They reestablished themselves in places like Snowflake and Woodruff, Arizona, and Farmington and Gallup, New Mexico.

Why are there springs in the desert?

Rainwater falls on the porous sandstone and seeps into the underlying clay layers. Tuba City is especially blessed because it is south of the Kaibito Plateau, a large mass of sandstone that collects water and carries it through natural underground clay layers to Tuba City, where it bubbles up as cool, naturally pure drinking water.

Tuba City Trading Post

This famous landmark was first opened in 1870 by Charles Algert, who hired store clerk Samual Preston to run the post for him. Preston later became a partner with the Babbitt brothers, who bought out Algert in 1902. Preston built the big, beautiful, hogan-shaped portion of the post after becoming a partner. It’s constructed of locally quarried blue limestone, with logs hauled in from the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff.

The Babbitt family, which also owns the CO Bar Ranch on U.S. 89, has played a major role in the Indian trading business for more than a century. They got into Indian trading inadvertently, acquiring ownership of the Red Lake Trading Post in 1891 after its previous owner was shot and killed by a jealous lover.

Like other traders, the Babbitts were attracted to the reservation because of the country’s need for wool. In exchange for one sackful worth about $3 to $4, they traded food, clothing, tobacco, medicine, tools, and kerosene to Navajo sheep herders.

Still a working trading post, it offers many items traded or bought from local artists: silver jewelry, sandpaintings, katsina dolls, and Navajo rugs. The post also has a wonderful assortment of T-shirts and books about the Southwest. The trading post is now owned and operated by the Navajo Nation Division of Tourism and honors daylight saving time from the first week in April to the last week in October. Hours: Monday through Friday 8 a.m.–6 p.m. and weekends 8 a.m.–5 p.m. (928) 283-5441.

Navajo Hogan (Just north of the trading post)

Hooghan, pronounced in Navajo as “HO-whan,” is the word for “home” and has come to also mean the traditionally round or octagonal dwelling used for living or ceremonies. Whether mud-covered, built of logs or stone, or made from 2 x 4s and plywood, a hogan is a hogan to Navajos. Common to them all, however, is that their doors always face east to the rising sun.

Accommodations (Hotels/Camping/RV Parks):

Tuba City – Lodging

Diné Inn Motel

Next to the Bashas’ shopping center. (928) 283-6107.

Quality Inn

A new eighty-room motel decorated in a Southwestern style. Rooms are moderately priced. It fills up fast in the summer. Reservations: (800) 644-8383; (928) 283-4545.

Greyhills Inn

On Warrior Drive off U.S. 160. Head northeast, take a left at the post office, then the first right, and the inn office is through the gate on the left. Greyhills Academy converted one dormitory into a thirty-two-room hostel for tourists. Most rooms have full or queen beds; some king beds available. Every room has a television. Dormitory-style bathrooms. Prices are in the budget range. You can make reservations by calling the Grey Hills High School switchboard, (928) 283-6271 or (800) 283-6271. The inn does not accept credit cards. Rooms held until 7 p.m. 928-283-4450 or 928-283-4450.

Tuba City – RV

RV Park

Register at the Quality Inn. Full hookups, shower, bathroom, pay phone, laundry room, cable.

Tours:

Food & Dining:

Groceries

Bashas’ is the major food store on the reservation. Prices are higher than off-reservation, but they have a good selection and an excellent produce section. Bashas’ has stores in Tuba City, Chinle, Kayenta, and Window Rock. Open M-Sat 7am-10pm, Sun 7am-8pm. There is an ATM. 928-283-5250

Services (Auto/Gas/Repair/Emergency):

Banking Services

Wells Fargo Bank is about midway down the four-lane stretch of Main Street, next to Kentucky Fried Chicken. Monday–Thursday 9 a.m.–5 p.m.; Friday 9 a.m.–6 p.m., closed Saturday and Sunday. 24-hour ATM.

Tuba City Navajo Police

On the east side of Main Street next to the tribal courthouse. (928) 283-3111. Jim Chee, Tony Hillerman’s fictitious police officer, transferred to this station from Shiprock.

Tuba City Regional Healthcare Center

All Indian Health Service (IHS) clinics and hospitals on the Navajo and Hopi Reservations are strictly for the care of tribally enrolled Native Americans with census numbers, as well as IHS-commissioned officers and their dependents. Non-natives may be seen on an emergency basis only. Health insurance is accepted. In an emergency, non-natives are admitted to the intensive care unit until they are stable enough to be transferred by airplane or ambulance to the nearest private hospital. The emergency room number is (928) 283-2661. There is also a 911 number in the Tuba City, Kayenta, and Chilchinbito areas.

Art & Culture (Galleries/Trading Posts/Museums):

Tuba City Trading Post

Still a working trading post, it offers many items traded or bought from local artists: silver jewelry, sandpaintings, katsina dolls, and Navajo rugs. The post also has a wonderful assortment of T-shirts and books about the Southwest. The trading post is now owned and operated by the Navajo Nation Division of Tourism Hours: Mon. – Fri. 8 am–6 pm and weekends 8 am–5 pm. Summer hours: 9am-6pm MDT. (928) 283-5441.

Flea Market

Every Friday from about 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. behind the Chapter House on Main Street, you can get homemade mutton stew and frybread and good prices on jewelry, Navajo pottery, herbs, and unusual items.

Permissions

• Trip information is condensed with permission from Native Roads: The Complete Motoring Guide to the Navajo and Hopi Nations, by Fran Kosik, Rio Nuevo Publishers, Tucson, Arizona, 2005. Trip numbers generally coincide with chapter number in the book. Fran's full book contains much more wonderful information on traveling our Native roads. For more detailed information, the book can be purchased from:

  Museum of Northern Arizona bookstore, 3101 N. Ft. Valley Rd., Flagstaff, AZ 86001; phone #: 928-774-5213 or direct 928-774-5211 + Ext 261. Or, contact the publisher, Rio Nuevo Publishers, PO Box 5250, Tucson, Arizona 85703; phone #: 520-623-9558 or 800-969-9558. Trip numbers generally correspond to chapter numbers.