Shabbos in Concho was great. We went for a couple little walks and enjoyed the solitude.
Today we drove east and north to Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site, which preserves the oldest continuously operating trading post in the West:
The trading post was founded in 1878 and continues to operate today:
Here on the Navajo Reservation, which is larger than ten US states, most tribal members shop at local convenience stores, but some do still shop at the trading post that has served this area for almost 150 years:
Native Americans bring their crafts here and sell them to the trading post for store credit or cash. The trading post then sells these items to the public:
We walked the grounds of the trading post:
The grounds include livestock pens:
Next we learned the history of this site in the adjacent visitor center:
The kids completed their Junior Ranger workbooks and received their badges:
We continued north towards tomorrow’s goal, Canyon de Chelly National Monument. Since it’s unclear if the Navajo Nation allows dispersed camping, we decided to stay at the NPS campground in Canyon de Chelly. I hate to pay for camping, but since we haven’t used a public campground since January of 2015 (see Day 519), I don’t feel all that bad paying the fourteen dollars. At least the campground is mostly empty:
Trish continues to fill the RV will all manner of adorable crocheted creations:
See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.