U.S. Highway 160 heading east from the junction of U.S. 89 to Tuba City, 11 miles (22.5 km) Please note: Detailed maps for every highway can be found in the book. They have been removed to conserve bandwidth and speed the loading of these pages for dialup users.

MM 480.5 JCT. OF U.S. 89 AND U.S. 160 TO TUBA CITY
This desolate stretch of road is wavy because the earth under the asphalt is a soft layer of shale made up of volcanic ash. When the layer gets wet it expands causing the road to heave under heavy loads. (Rigby, 1976)

MM 312 HAMBLIN WASH (North)
Usually a dry streambed, this wash follows the base of the Echo Cliffs north along U.S. 89. It is named for Jacob Hamblin, a well-known Mormon explorer and missionary who first came to the Tuba City area in 1858. Hamblin explored this region at the request of Mormon Church President Brigham Young who wanted to colonize northern Arizona and develop a good relationship with the local natives. Hamblin Wash became part of the first route south from Utah's Mormon enclaves.

In 1870, Hamblin served as a guide for John Wesley Powell, the renowned explorer of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River, taking him over the Mormon settlers' route from Lees Ferry, south along Echo Cliffs, then east to the Hopi mesas. After visiting the Hopis, Hamblin and Powell traveled on to Fort Defiance. There Hamblin met with Navajo leaders to negotiate a peace treaty between the Navajos and Mormons. (McNitt, 1962)

MM 12.5 TUBA CITY AIRPORT (North)
This airport is little more than a paved airstrip used primarily to transport Navajo and Hopi patients for any emergency medical care not available at the Tuba City Indian Medical Center 11 miles (22.5 km) up the road. Its inconvenient and improbable location is the result of compromise reached by the Navajo and Hopi tribes which spent more than 26 years disputing ownership of thousands of acres of land surrounding this site.

MM 313 BADLANDS OF THE PAINTED DESERT
Topping the multi-colored, banded plateau at 5,500 feet (1,677 m), the highway opens to a vast, treeless expanse. Here the land changes from tawny whites to burnished red. The soil is made up of ancient silts and volcanic ash formed during the dinosaur age which combine to form bentonite. Once wet, bentonite swells and then cracks as it dries, making it easily eroded and unable to support any vegetation. (Chronic, 1986)

The Navajos call the Painted Desert halchmmtah, or"among the colors." An incredibly beautiful place, especially at sunrise and sunset, because of the brightly-colored shades of pink, gray and green of the mesas. This colorful collection of siltstone and shales is from the Owl Rock member of the Chinle Formation, formed more than 150 to 250 million years ago. (Rigby, 1976; Breed, 1968)

MM 313.5 PHOTO OPPORTUNITY (North)
Decide quickly! The road rises up between the narrow sides (a huge gully, really) of the eroded edge of the plateau and quickly bends to the east. By then, you've probably missed the undeveloped turnoff (a left turn if traveling easterly) that takes you off the road onto the top of an isolated mesa, a "little sister," at the top of the hill. This is a great place to pull off, explore the desert and take pictures of the lunar-like vistas of the northern Painted Desert.

MM 314 TUBA BUTTE (North) An igneous intrusive formation.

MM 316.25 BALANCING ROCKS (North)
About 200 million years ago, a warm-water ocean covered most of the western United States. On the edge of the water were marshes, swamps and jungles. Dinosaurs thrived here until about 65 million years ago when the western mountain ranges formed, blocking most of the moisture. The balancing rocks are the result of wind and water erosion of the softer sandstone.

MM 316.5 DINOSAUR TRACKS (North)
Follow the signs to the roadside stands. Usually, an enterprising Navajo entrepreneur from the area will come to your car to offer services as a guide. Shake hands, introduce yourself and the guide will show you to the tracks. A small gratuity of a couple dollars is appropriate. These tracks, found in the Tuba City and Kayenta area in 1942 and in China in the 1980s, are the worlds only evidence of "running dinosaurs" which lived during the late Triassic, early Jurassic era. The Dilophosaurus was a medium-sized dinosaur weighing approximately 1,000 pounds (453 kg) and standing 8 to 10 feet (2.4-3.1 m) tall. They had powerful hind legs for running and forefeet that resembled a bird's foot with four toes. The front arms were short with clawed fingers used for grasping. Although it had very sharp teeth, it probably used its hind legs and front claws to rip its prey. You can see one of its claws embedded in the sandstones on your tour of the tracks. The Dilophosaurus was depicted in the movie Jurassic Park as a venom-spitting creature that poisoned its victims before eating them. There is no evidence that the Tuba City Dilophosaurus poisoned its prey like its Hollywood cousin.


MM 316.5 MOENAVE (North)
From Dinosaur Tracks to the north you can see a green oasis at the base of Hamblin's Ridge made up of Moenave Sandstone. Prior to 100 years ago, the abundant springs from the sandstone supported generations of Hopi farms, and, before them, prehistoric Indians. Between 1870 and 1904, a few Mormon settlers occupied the little canyon and developed its irrigation system. Since then, Navajos have lived and farmed in the canyon.

Mormon trailblazer Jacob Hamblin began farming here after making friends with Chief Tuuvi at the Hopi farming area of Moenkopi, today the Hopis' western-most village. In 1874, Hamblin sold his homestead to John D. Lee who used it to hide from authorities because of his part in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Lee's stay in Moenave was only a short reprieve. Five months later lawmen caught him on a trip to Utah to visit his family. Taken back to Panquitch for trial, a firing squad executed him standing in his own coffin. For more information about the massacre see pages 85-87. (Brooks, 1950)

MM 318.5 IGNEOUS RIDGE AND SAND DUNE (South)
The ridge indicates that at one time there was some volcanic activity in this area pushing lava to the surface to form this ridge.

MM 329 KAYENTA FORMATION (North)
These red rocks are part of the Glen Canyon Group formed during the late Triassic, early Jurassic era around 180 to 230 million years ago. It consists of bright-colored red sandstone, mudstone and some limestone. Most of the dinosaur tracks in northern Arizona are preserved in the Kayenta Formation.

MM 319.5 VAN'S TRADING POST (North)
The Vankeuren family is one of the oldest trading families still operating a store in the Tuba City area. This location, at the foot of the mesa, is known to locals as Kerley Valley, named for John Kerley, another trader who was a partner in the Babbitt Bros. Trading Post in Tuba City. Finding the community of Tuba City too large for his liking, he moved to the "valley." Built in 1921, the old post sits right next to the gas company behind the new Van's Trading Post.

MM 322 TUBA CITY TRUCK STOP
Southeast side of the junction of 160 and 264. This restaurant is famous for its Navajo taco, voted the State Dish of Arizona in a 1995 poll conducted by the Arizona Republic. A Navajo taco is an amalgamation of beans, chopped lettuce, sliced tomato, shredded cheddar and an optional green chile sitting atop a piece of crispy fry bread, and eaten open-faced. Fry bread cooked on the Navajo Reservation simply must be made with Bluebird Flour from the Cortez Milling Co. to be considered authentically Navajo. The precise reason is ineffable but it's believed its higher gluten content holds the dough together better than other flours when flipped between palms to achieve the round, tortilla shape for cooking. Then the dough is fried in Crisco or lard in a heavy iron skillet. Now thought of as a "traditional food," fry bread actually came from the Bosque Redondo era when some 8,000 Navajos spent four years imprisoned and were given little more than white flour and lard to eat.

The truck stop is a favorite of locals with its classic small town ambiance and menu. Curiously, the truck stop and everything on the east side of U.S. 160 for several miles is on Hopi land. Everything to the west is on Navajo land. The boundary is the center stripe down the highway.

Move on to Historic Detour of Tuba City

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