Navaho Nation Visitors

One Artist Buying From Another

Day 8 April 8, 2006

We're now in Tuba City, Arizon, a part of the Navaho Nation, and what looks to be a fairly prosperous town after passing so much native American poverty in along the way. We had a wonderful meal (best steak of the trip, so far) at a restaurant next door to our RV park which is part of the Quality Inn. The park is a very nice facility and we even have cable TV, but alas, no internet access via Verizon for the first stop on the journey. We'll catch up on email and blog posting later when we have access.

The trip here from Richfield, Utah was a very pleasant journey in the Sevier River valley for the early going with beautiful sunny weather in the 60s. We were high up most of the time and traces of snow were evident here and there in the forest and on high ridges.

We visited Best Friend's Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah on the Arizona border. This is an incredible facility. They own outright 4,000 acres in Angel Canyon and lease an adjacent 30,000 from the Burea of Land Management for 'protection' as a natural area. Best friends is the largest sanctuary in the U.S. with 1,500-2,000 animals of all kinds, mostly dogs and cats. This organization has 270 employees in Angel Canyon and hundreds of volunteers, some who come for days or weeks at a time form all over the country. The facilities are incredible in design, funtionality and cleanliness. The place is so big and so thorough in caring for animals who they sponsor for adoption, if possible, that it's hard to fathom. With a $24,000,000 annual operating budget, they have seen substantial growth as a result of hurricane Katrina. The side trip was well worth the 2.5 hours. Their website is www.bestfriends.org.

Then on to Arizona for more desert, gullies, gulches, mounds, escarpments and canyons and a wonderful lodgepole pine forest in the high country near the 8,000 foot entrance road (road closed in winter until May 15) to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
So very little traffic on U.S. 89 and 89a from Fredonia, Arizona to Tuba City. Travel was easy, if boring, with so much painted desert scenery and good roads. Sunday we're headed to Grand Canyon.