After standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona for about as long as we care to, we head out of town on Route 66. Within a few minutes, we find a trading post that sells native made products. I leave with a lighter wallet and some beautiful jewelry.

The shop keeper recommends that we visit the nearby Homolovi State Park. This “place of the little hills” is home to 400 ancestral pueblos of the “long ago” Hopi People. After a brief stop at the visitor center, where I encounter a rattlesnake, we take a leisurely drive through the park.

We are greeted along the route by dozens of wild donkeys. There isn’t much else discernible in the desert. It is dry and barren as far as the eye can see. But the audio guide allows us to learn about the archeological site as we drive this section of the painted desert.

The first stop has dozens of foundations of ancient houses, kivas, and thousands of pottery shards. Signs ask visitors to respect the sacred space and to keep to the marked paths. Ancient pottery shards are everywhere.

Unfortunately, a self-entitled couple decide that their sunset photo session is more important than ancient and fragile landscapes. Unfathomably, they decide to hike on top of the ruins of the outer wall. The woman digs up pottery with her hands and throws the shards aside as if she is skipping rocks. I have to leave the area. I cannot abide the lack of respect. Sacred means sacred. I say a prayer for the Hopi people and make my escape.

Back in the trusty big orange truck, we head down the road to a huge mound of rock. I am leery of climbing a rock pile trail due to the prior snake encounter, but we make it up the trail to see the primitive rock carvings with no issues. Coming down, we switch trails to give the donkeys some room. They live here after all.

And so the sun sets on the painted desert as it has done for thousands of years. We are currently the only ones here to witness the glory….except of course for the donkeys.