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USEFUL WEBSITES

www.arizonabeef.com

www.atkins.com

LINK YOUR TRIP www.lonelyplanet.com/trip-planner

TRIP

11 48 Hours in Greater Phoenix

16 Cowboy Time

22 Grapes & Hops in the Desert

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A Slice of Native America

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WHY GO Apart from the rich culture you can experience on the major reservations to the north, the museums and archaeological sites near Arizona’s three biggest cities tell a fascinating tale of societies that rose, created thriving cities and then disappeared for no apparent reason.

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TIME

5 days

DISTANCE

500 miles

BEST TIME TO GO

Year-round

START

Phoenix, AZ

END

Tuscon, AZ

ALSO GOOD FOR

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In the saguaro-studded desert just south of Phoenix, Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa is hands down the best spot to start a tour of Arizona’s easy to reach Native American sights. Owned by the Gila River tribe and set on their reservation, this 500-room resort is an impressive mix of luxury and tradition. Tribal elders relate ancient legends around the fire pit and wild horses really do run free outside the hotel.

No property in Arizona can compare with the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass on Native American bona fides – built and run by Native Americans – but Scottsdale’s Hyatt Regency Scottsdale Resort & Spa has a more central location. It has a small but quite good Native American education center and the hotel occasionally hosts traditional craft demonstrations and dances.

Wherever you stay, tear yourself away for a day to head to Phoenix’s palm- and skyscraper-fringed Central Ave for a visit to the Heard Museum. A trip to these artifact-packed halls should count for college credit you learn so much. And, because the museum designers know their stuff, the past springs to life in vivid colors and heartbreaking tales. The ‘Boarding School Experience’ gallery is about the controversial federal policy of removing Native American children from their families and sending them to remote boarding schools in order to ‘Americanize’ them. The corner of Central and Indian School Rds, now occupied by Steele Indian School Park, used to have just such a school.

Whet your appetite with lunch at Fry Bread House, a long-time local favorite. This is the place for the traditional Native American treat of Navajo tacos – deep-fried bread topped with beans, meat or whatever else. Think of it kind of like an oversized taco-meets-pita. Businesspeople and Native Americans in search of comfort food mingle here during any given lunch rush. From the Heard Museum, cruise 2 miles north on Central and make a left at Indian School Rd. Steele Indian School Park will be on your right. Continue to 7th Ave.

Learn about the Hohokam at the Pueblo Grande Museum & Archaeology Park. For the most scenic route head 8 miles southeast – Central Ave to Washington St through old neighborhoods. Inside the museum, you’ll learn all about the Hohokam ruins of a Pueblo Grande village located right outside the door. Famous for building such a well-engineered 1000-mile network of irrigation canals that some modern canals simply follow their paths, the civilization simply disappeared in about AD 1500.

No matter where you’re sleeping, make dinner reservations at Kai, at Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa. Kai takes Native American to a new level with traditional crops grown along the Gila River and a fine wine list. A sunset dinner on the patio overlooking the virgin desert while horses gallop in the distance: priceless.

Dedicate time for the 100-mile round-trip through housing developments and cotton fields to Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. The Casa Grande (big house) is a sort of ancient apartment complex. It’s one of the country’s largest remaining Hohokam buildings, with 11 rooms spread across four floors. The Pima and Tohono O’odham are probably the modern descendants of the Hohokam, but scientists are still debating what happened to the tribe.

After another night in the Phoenix area,