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#2: [31-Aug-03]

#1: [16-May-99]

#4: [18-Nov-06]

19-May-2006 -- Our plans for some hiking in New Mexico were thwarted with forest closures due to the extreme fire danger, so last minute, my wife and I decided to spend a few days touring the vast Navajo and Hopi Nations of northeast Arizona. On this particular day we were making a long drive from Tawaoc (Colorado) to Flagstaff (Arizona) by way of Ganado and state highway AZ-264, which spans the Hopi Nation.

One attraction along the way was a short visit to Old Oraibi, supposedly one of the oldest continuously inhabited towns in region, dating back to the 14th century. Old Oraibi is just a short drive off the main highway, a few shacks, and some obvious old stone ruins. Its location on top a mesa gives it a natural defense against intruders. Today, just the occasional tourist visits; it's not geared toward tourism in any way. Photography is prohibited.

The confluence was next on the agenda, with no pre-planning whatsoever. Driving along the highway, I kept the GPS on until we hit the 111th meridian, where by pure dumb luck was one of the few dirt roads leading off the highway past the well-fenced countryside. We drove in about a quarter-mile and parked where the road made a sharp descent down the mesa. The weather was fairly hot and windy; my wife decided to give this one a pass. Smart woman! I grabbed a bottle of water, the camera and GPS and walked down the road to where it passed the 36th parallel, then walked about 1,500 feet west on soft sand and light scrub to the unremarkable confluence. North are some dramatic cliffs and south and east is a bluff known as Blue Point. I took the four photos and returned to the truck. The journey took about 45 minutes and covered about 2 miles; the road looked solid enough that we could have driven some of it down the mesa. Easy enough otherwise.

According to my land-use map, the confluence sits astride the Hopi-Navajo boundary; Hopi Nation to the east, Navajo to the west ... for what it's worth.

In the Navajo Indian Reservation.