12 Best Sights in Northeast Arizona, Arizona

Home to Ancestral Pueblo from AD 350 to 1300, the nearly 84,000-acre Canyon de Chelly (pronounced d'shay) is one of the most spectacular natural wonders in the Southwest. On a smaller scale, it rivals the Grand Canyon for beauty. Its main gorges—the 26-mile-long Canyon de Chelly ("canyon in the rock") and the adjoining 35-mile-long Canyon del Muerto ("canyon of the dead")—comprise sheer, heavily eroded sandstone walls that rise to 1,100 feet over dramatic valleys. Ancient pictographs and petroglyphs decorate some of the cliffs, and within the canyon complex there are more than 7,000 archaeological sites. Stone walls rise hundreds of feet above streams, hogans, tilled fields, and sheep-grazing lands.

You can view prehistoric sites near the base of cliffs and perched on high, sheltering ledges, some of which you can access from the park's two main drives along the canyon rims. The dwellings and cultivated fields of the present-day Navajo lie in the flatlands between the cliffs, and those who inhabit the canyon today farm much the way their ancestors did. Most residents leave the canyon in winter but return in early spring to farm.

Canyon de Chelly's South Rim Drive (37 miles round-trip with seven overlooks) starts at the visitor center and ends at Spider Rock Overlook, where cliffs plunge nearly 1,000 feet to the canyon floor. The view here is of two pinnacles, Speaking Rock and Spider Rock. Other highlights on the South Rim Drive are Junction Overlook, where Canyon del Muerto joins Canyon de Chelly; White House Overlook, from which a 2½-mile round-trip trail leads to the White House Ruin, with remains of nearly 60 rooms and several kivas; and Sliding House Overlook, where you can see dwellings on a narrow, sloped ledge across the canyon. The carved and sometimes narrow trail down the canyon side to White House Ruin is the only access into Canyon de Chelly without a guide—if you have a fear of heights, this may not be the hike for you.

The only slightly less breathtaking North Rim Drive (34 miles round-trip with three overlooks) of Canyon del Muerto also begins at the visitor center and continues northeast on Indian Highway 64 toward the town of Tsaile. Major stops include Antelope House Overlook, a large site named for the animals painted on an adjacent cliff; Mummy Cave Overlook, where two mummies were found inside a remarkably unspoiled pueblo dwelling; and Massacre Case Overlook, which marks the spot where an estimated 115 Navajo were killed by the Spanish in 1805. (The rock walls of the cave are still pockmarked by the Spaniards' ricocheting bullets.)

Merchant John Lorenzo Hubbell established this trading post in 1876. In addition to trading goods, Hubbell taught, translated letters, settled family quarrels, and explained government policy to the Navajo, and during an 1886 smallpox epidemic he turned his home into a hospital and ministered to the sick and dying. He died in 1930 and is buried near the trading post. Visitors today can tour the historic home and explore the grounds and outbuildings.

The Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site is famous for "Ganado red" Navajo rugs, which are sold at the store here. Rugs can cost anywhere from $100 to more than $30,000, but considering the quality and time that goes into weaving each one, the prices are quite reasonable. Documents of authenticity are provided for all works. Note: when photographing weavers, ask permission first. They expect a few dollars in return.

Two unoccupied 13th-century cliff pueblos, Betatakin and Keet Seel, stand under the overhanging cliffs of Tsegi Canyon. The largest ancient dwellings in Arizona, these stone-and-mortar complexes were built by Ancestral Puebloans, obviously for permanent occupancy, but abandoned after less than half a century.

The well-preserved, 135-room Betatakin (Navajo for "ledge house") is a cluster of cliff dwellings from AD 1250 that seem to hang in midair before a sheer sandstone wall. When discovered in 1907 by a passing American rancher, the apartments were full of baskets, pottery, and preserved grains and ears of corn—as if the occupants had been chased away in the middle of a meal. For an impressive view of Betatakin, walk to the rim overlook about ½ mile from the visitor center. Ranger-led tours (a 5-mile, four-hour, strenuous round-trip hike including a 700-foot descent into the canyon) leave once or twice a day from late May to early September, and on weekends (weather permitting) the rest of the year. No reservations are accepted; groups of no more than 25 form on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Keet Seel (Navajo for "broken pottery") is also in good condition in a serene location, with 160 rooms and 5 kivas dating from AD 950. Explorations of Keet Seel, which lies at an elevation of 7,000 feet and is 8½ miles from the visitor center on foot, are restricted: only 20 people are allowed to visit per day, and only between late May and early September, when a ranger is present at the site. A permit—which also allows campers to stay overnight nearby—is required. To get the permit, all visitors hiking to Keet Seel must attend a mandatory meeting the day before the scheduled hike.

Trips to Keet Seel are very popular, so reservations are taken up to two months in advance.

Anyone who suffers from vertigo might want to avoid this trip: the trail leads down a 1,100-foot, near-vertical rock face.

About 5½ miles west of Tuba City, between mileposts 316 and 317 on U.S. 160, is a small sign for the Dinosaur Tracks. It's free to see these tracks that a dilophosaurus—a carnivorous bipedal reptile over 10 feet tall—left in mud that turned to sandstone, but Navajo guides will often greet you as you arrive and insist on taking you around the site. They're very friendly and helpful, but if you take them up on their offer, they expect to be tipped, usually at least $20. Ask them about guiding you to the nearby petroglyphs and freshwater springs.

The handsome center contains an extensive crafts shop and exhibits devoted to ancient and modern Native American history, including a display on the World War II Navajo code talkers. Most of the independent guided group tours, necessary to go deep into the valley, leave from the center. You can generally find Navajo guides—who will escort you to places that you are not allowed to visit on your own—in the center or at the booths in the parking lot. The center adjoins the stunning View Hotel (and restaurant), which sits on a gradual rise overlooking the valley and its magnificent red rock monoliths, with big-sky views in every direction.

Take a self-guided walking tour through the Navajo Cultural Center of Kayenta, which includes the small Shadehouse Museum and a 2-acre outdoor cultural park. The museum is designed to resemble an authentic shadehouse (these wood-frame, rather crude structures are used to shelter sheepherders in the region's often unforgiving high-desert sun). Inside, visitors will find an extensive collection of Navajo code talkers memorabilia and local artwork, as well as exhibits on the beliefs and traditions that have shaped North America's largest Native American tribe. As you walk through the grounds of the cultural park, note the different types of traditional hogans and sweat lodges.

Devoted to the art, culture, and history of the Navajo people, this museum also has an excellent library on the Navajo Nation. Each season brings new exhibitions by native artists; call for a list of current shows. There are also permanent exhibits on the Long Walk—during which the Navajo were tragically and temporarily relocated to Fort Sumner, New Mexico—and on the culture and philosophies of the Navajo people. In the same building is the Navajo Nation Visitor Center, a great resource for all sorts of information on reservation activities.

The junction of U.S. 160 with U.S. 89, 4 miles west of the Dinosaur Tracks, is one of the most colorful regions of the Painted Desert, with amphitheaters of maroon, orange, and red rocks facing west—it's especially glorious at sunset.

At the corner of North Navajo Drive and Lake Powell Boulevard is the Powell Museum, whose namesake, John Wesley Powell, led the first known expeditions down the Green River and the rapids-choked Colorado through the Grand Canyon between 1869 and 1872. Powell mapped and kept detailed records of his trips, naming the Grand Canyon and many other geographic points of interest in northern Arizona. Artifacts from his expeditions are displayed in the museum. The museum also doubles as the town's visitor information center. A travel desk dispenses information and allows you to book boating tours, raft trips, scenic flights, accommodations in Page, or Antelope Canyon tours. When you sign up for tours here, concessionaires give a donation to the nonprofit museum with no extra charge to you.

The 290-foot red-sandstone arch is the world's largest natural bridge; it can be reached by boat or strenuous hike and can also be viewed by air. A boat tour to the monument ($126) is a great way to see not only the monument but also the enormity of the lake and its incredible, rugged beauty. The lake level is down, however, due to the prolonged drought throughout the region, so expect a 1-mile (or more) hike from the boat dock to the monument. To the Navajos this is a sacred area with deep religious and spiritual significance, so outsiders are asked not to hike underneath the arch itself.

Amid the sandstone monoliths on the border between Arizona and New Mexico, the Navajo Nation Zoological and Botanical Park displays about 50 species of domestic and wild animals, birds, and amphibians that figure in Navajo legends, as well as examples of plants used by traditional people. Most of the animals here were brought in as orphans or after sustaining injuries—they include black bears, mountain lions, Mexican gray wolves, bobcats, cougars, golden eagles, Gila monsters, and prairie rattlesnakes. It's the nation's only Native American–owned zoo.

The octagonal store, founded in the early 1870s, sells groceries and authentic, reasonably priced Navajo rugs, pottery, baskets, and jewelry—it's adjacent to the Quality Inn Navajo Nation and Explore Navajo Interactive Museum.