Before we departed the Southern desert, we spent several days outside Phoenix in the backyard of an upscale house in an odd subdivision of what they call small ranches. These plots range in size from 2-5 acres, most have a large house with outbuildings. Our hosts did not have horses but many neighbors did. We had a nice pool surrounded by beautiful desert gardens, I enjoyed the dry heat and lounged by the pool. The temperature went higher daily, peaking at 106, our camper was almost 125 inside, whew. The myth of comfortable dry heat is only true to a point, above 90 it’s just plain scorching hot. To top off our desert experience, we then suffered through an intense dust storm that lasted 18 hours, the wind blew 40 mph, at times the choking dust cutting visibility to 50 feet. This dirt storm was like experiencing a biblical plague, it was awful. Going outside was painful, your eyes immediately filled with dust, breathing was almost impossible, dirt and debris flew everywhere. The next morning the sky cleared, but our patio and pool furniture were covered in a layer of dirt. The pool was a mess. We’d had enough of the desert and headed North. By the time we reached our next destination, Flagstaff, the temperature had dropped almost 50 degrees. The cool, clean Mountain air was great. We really liked Flagstaff, a great college town. Those are Mule Deer in our backyard.
We had crossed the huge Navajo Reservation , the most desolate, empty barren land we’ve seen. The desert was mostly void of any sign of people. The only sign that humans were there was the occasional cattle gate with mailboxes, their dwellings hidden in the desert. This was open range, we had to keep a keen eye out for cattle in the road, we wondered what the poor animals were eating in this moonlike landscape.
The Navajo ( and ALL native tribes) were clearly given the most barren, dry, worthless land for their reservations. It’s as if those White Men 150 years ago studied the maps and made sure the “Indians ” got absolutely nothing of value. Shame on us.
We visited the Hopi tribe ( all photography forbidden) and throughly enjoyed talking with them. We stopped at houses advertising jewelry and pottery, Karen bought some nice crafts.
The pic of the arrow straight desert highway is approaching the Hopi Reservation. I clocked that laser straight stretch of road, 30 miles! It can be a bit hypnotic driving these long stretches were you can see your journey laid out out in front of you disappearing into a mirage.
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