Most of the middle of the trip is on Native land: the Hualapai along Route 66, then the Navajo Nation from Cameron to Monument Valley, with the Hopi mesas just off the route. North of there it’s the country of the Ancestral Puebloans, whose ruins and rock art are everywhere around Bluff and Blanding.
Own pages: Cameron Trading Post and Monument Valley.
Arizona (day 2–5)
- Peach Springs — capital of the Hualapai Nation, on Route 66 between Hackberry and Seligman. Just a drive-through, but worth knowing whose land it is. (The Hualapai also run Grand Canyon West and the glass Skywalk, far off our route.)
- Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff — probably the best museum on the route for Hopi, Navajo and other Colorado Plateau cultures: art, pottery, weaving, jewelry. Going Williams → Flagstaff → Grand Canyon instead of straight north adds ~1 h. 2 h inside.
- Desert View Watchtower — Mary Colter’s tower with Hopi murals inside. The area is run as an intertribal cultural heritage site, often with Native artists demonstrating and selling work.
- Little Colorado River Gorge — overlook on AZ‑64 with stalls where Navajo makers sell jewelry directly.
- Cameron Trading Post — overnight; the 1916 trading post, gallery and Navajo tacos.
Navajo Nation (day 6)
- Burger King, Kayenta — small exhibit about the WWII Navajo Code Talkers, whose unbroken code was based on the Navajo language. Odd place for it, good exhibit.
- Monument Valley — book a Navajo-guided tour (jeep or horseback) to get into the closed areas: arches, petroglyphs, a hogan visit. The guides’ family stories are the best part.
- Goulding’s Trading Post Museum — the old 1920s trading post, about trading-post life and the John Ford westerns filmed in the valley.
Ancestral Puebloan country (day 7)
On US‑191 between Monument Valley and Moab:
- Sand Island petroglyphs near Bluff — a long rock-art panel right next to the parking area: bighorn sheep, figures, Kokopelli.
- Edge of the Cedars Museum, Blanding — large collection of Ancestral Puebloan pottery and artifacts. A real ruin out back with a ladder down into a reconstructed kiva (ceremonial room).
- Newspaper Rock — one of the densest petroglyph panels in the Southwest, ~2,000 years of carvings on one rock face. ~20 min detour on UT‑211.
Salt Lake City (day 11)
- Natural History Museum of Utah — strong galleries on the Fremont culture and the Ute, Shoshone, Goshute and Paiute. Near This Is The Place Heritage Park, so the two fit in one afternoon.
Detours
- Hopi mesas / Hopi Cultural Center, Second Mesa — some of the oldest continuously inhabited villages in North America (Old Oraibi). ~1 h from Tuba City. Strict rules: no photos, sketches or recordings in the villages; ceremonies may close them to visitors. Best with a local Hopi guide.
- Heard Museum, Phoenix — the top Native American art museum in the US, but Phoenix is far off this route.
Etiquette
- Tribal land has its own laws: permits for hiking off the main roads, no alcohol on the Navajo Nation, drones usually banned.
- Ask before photographing people, homes or ceremonies.
- Don’t touch petroglyphs or pick up pottery shards — it damages them and is illegal.
- Buying directly from makers or reputable trading posts is the best way to support the communities.