A Tour of Hopi Land (According to Alex)

As I began my first explorations of Hopi nine months ago, I heard time and again that you cannot really understand this place without being here.  And my experience has taught me so far that I indeed struggle to describe it.

So I will try instead to take you on a virtual tour – to show you some the things that have been significant to me while living here.

I was lucky enough to have my parents come visit last month, so they got to experience the real thing!

Mom, Dad, Kip, and Autumn  taking a walk in the desert with me around the trails at the Hopi Veteran's Memorial Center

Here we go!

Let's start at my apartment:

At my front door

Couldn't help but hang my Panama hammock on my back porch

Every day I walk from my housing complex to the Hopi Health Care Center, across the street, where my office is located.

That guarantees me at least three minutes twice a day to enjoy whatever the weather happens to be. It's usually sunny (Hopi only receives around 6-10" of precipitation annually), but we do experience at least four seasons.

Winter in my neighborhood

Budding trees of spring

Pretty flowers of midsummer

Watching a storm go by during monsoon season (late summer)

Spent corn fields of autumn

I have decorated my office walls with a few important items.

Yes, those are my bib numbers and medals from the races I have run here, and yes, that is my Peace Corps certificate signed by President Obama.

Sometimes at work I get to go into the field.  During my first few months, I was conducting house-to-house sanitation surveys (reminiscent of my information-gathering process as a Peace Corps Volunteer), as part of a wastewater feasibility study for 100-some homes on Second Mesa that still have not been served with indoor plumbing.

Living on top of the mesa comes with some spectacular views (see below), and -- historically -- significant protection and defense advantages, but it also comes with some significant challenges.  For the wastewater project we are developing on Second Mesa, the challenge is to find how to dispose of wastewater for homes built on top of rock, when digging trenches for sewer lines is expensive, and there is insufficient blow sand to accommodate a septic tank's drainfield.

Panorama taken from the back side of Second Mesa - you can see all the storms passing through

A glimpse of the lagoon serving part of Second Mesa

Sometimes my field work takes me to the far western Villages of Hopi, where we are working on drilling a well for an additional water supply and where we are replacing a portion of the sewer system built over 50 years ago.

The hour drive out that way is beautiful, punctuated in the middle by passing alongside Coal Mine Canyon:

Coal Mine Canyon - so many colors!

Look at all the cool rocks, Dad!

As I walk back home at the end of the day, I might run across the Hopi Mobile Library, parked in the middle of the housing complex, and stop to chat with the librarian and check out a book (I have particularly looked into their Hopi collection).

Hopi Mobile Library

After work I usually go straight to the Fitness Center at the Hopi Veteran's Memorial Center, where I run on the trails, lift in the weight room, and participate in the variety of fitness classes offered by the trainers there.  It is fun to be part of that community, and the drive to and from, climbing up and down Second Mesa, is always spectacular.  The sky here is amazing.  Every day.

View of Second Mesa, looking from one of its "fingers" to the other

The sign in front of Hopi Cultural Center, located on Second Mesa, which I pass on my way to the Fitness Center (and where I occasionally have lunch with my coworkers and buy Hopi art greeting cards)

On Friday evenings, the Fitness Center is not open, so if I am not going somewhere else that night, I like to go for a walk down to the wash behind the housing complex.

Full moon rising as the sun is setting in early spring

Check out that Hopi corn growing mid-summer!  The Hopi practice dry farming, which mean no irrigation - they depend on precipitation only.  Pretty impressive!

I have spent my weekends a variety of ways here: I have been invited to attend Hopi ceremonies, I have explored several of the National Parks and Forests within a drive of here (all the way into Utah and Colorado), I have participated in races all over the area, and I have spent some time doing chores at home, too.  I also spent a couple weekends helping a friend build his energy-efficient passive solar home through the Hopi Tutskwa Permaculture Institute Sustainable Homeownership Program.

My role was primarily to help plaster the walls using a mud mixture.  Pretty impressive for a home made mostly of straw bales and mud!

When I leave the Rez to do grocery shopping or other chores, I sometimes go to Flagstaff, but if I'm not in the mood to travel as far, I'll go to Winslow, just down the road from The Corner.

Take It Easy!

That's the last stop on the Virtual Tour - come visit if you would like to see more!  After all, my photography hardly does justice to the awesome vastness and sweeping landscapes of this place, which has a grandeur and beauty all its own.  

I hope Kip and Autumn enjoyed their tour, too - a challenging climate, but so many interesting smells!