Our goal today was a Hopi arts and crafts fair near Kykotsmovi in what the locals call Hopi Land. The drive down from Page was beautiful, but uneventful. While the most spectacular geological formations may be in the big parks like Bryce, Grand Staircase Escalante, etc., this whole area is full of wonderful painted cliffs, badlands, hoodoos, balancing rocks, and more. For Tami, it is Cowboy Western country – she keeps dreaming of riding horses, chasing outlaws, and gun battles in amongst the rocks. She always wanted to be a cowboy, after all.

Cowboy rocks!

Colorado River canyon

As we entered Hopi Land, we saw many small cleared fields with corn grown in the Hopi manner, evidence that it is still an important staple. While the Navaho have a strong tradition of raising livestock, especially sheep, the Hopi have a long history of farming, especially corn. Even their art often features the corn plant as an important symbol.

Corn in the Cultural Center courtyard.

The problem when we got here was that we didn’t know EXACTLY where the art fair was. OK, we knew it was at the Hopi Veterans Memorial Center, but we were not sure where that was, other than somewhere around Kykotsmovi. Even though it is a VERY small town, we drove around without spotting any sign of it. Finally we found a Hopi tribal policeman to ask. He kindly directed us to get back on the main road and head two miles out of town the direction we had been heading. If we had just driven another few hundred yards on the main road, we would have seen the first sign.

Now unlost, we made it to the fair. It was not as large as we had hoped, but there were some good artists showing there, and we picked up a few things. Everyone we talked to asked where we were from, and when we said Seattle, they lit up and either told us about the time they had been there, or how much they would like to travel there. One woman told us going up the Space Needle was on her bucket list.

Not only is Seattle popular, but the Seahawks seem to be the favorite team for many people we talk to. We often see craft items featuring the Seahawks (along with a few other teams like the Cardinals), and several of the artists and people in the shops who we talked to are big Seahawks fans. Very funny!

After we left there we drove the few miles to the Hopi Cultural Center, which includes a motel where we are staying tonight. When we got here, we discovered that there was another Hopi cultural festival going on here! There were more arts and crafts booths, food vendors, Hopi dancing and drumming. The dancer’s costumes are beautiful and it’s nice to see how many of the dancers are young people. We are two of only a few gringos around here but everyone has been very friendly and welcoming.

The fry bread we had for dinner last night in Page only whetted our appetites for more. At the festival here we found a booth selling fry bread, so made lunch of that. Then we had dinner at the restaurant at the Cultural Center, and that came with fry bread as well! With the fry bread we also had lamb and hominy stew, rather like a pozole.

It is after 7 and we can still hear the drumming, but we are holed up in our room watching the Huskies having a Duck dinner – I know we should be out there, but this is the first chance we have had this year to catch a Husky game!