Northern Arizona News Bureau
Travel News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 19, 2004
CONTACT:
Mike Finney
PHONE 480.897.3331
mike@gcanyon.com
DETOURS OF ARIZONA UNVEILS EXCLUSIVE NATIVE AMERICAN TOURS
DETOURS, Arizona’s acclaimed adventure van tour company, has unveiled three new Native American tours, offering visitors a never before seen perspective of the land and the native peoples of the Southwest. These four and five day tours offer unique access to some of the most beautiful Native American territory in Arizona. The tours are led by expert DETOURS driver-guides. Along the way, Native American guides will contribute personal insight on the land that is their home. Travelers will enjoy the safety and comfort of specially outfitted Adventure Vans which are configured for touring on scenic backroads that most tour vehicles can not traverse. The vans feature individual seating for ten guests in high-back leather captain’s chairs that recline. The Adventure Vans are outfitted with an onboard digital photo printer for custom color prints.
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Navajo-Hopilands Tour
Detours’ guests will be welcomed into the homes and special places by the local Native American guides. A personal introduction to Hopi culture is offered in the form of a traditional dinner served in a Hopi home in the Village of Shungopavi and a Hopi artist demonstration. A showcase of Navajo lands includes a tour of Canyon de Chelly and Monument Valley. Both tours have Navajo guides and Canyon de Chelly will include the vistas of Spider Rock viewed from the rim as well as an up-close look at 1,000 year old cliff dwellings on an exploration of the floor of the canyon. Lunch is served with a generous helping of storytelling near the river surrounded by the soaring sandstone canyon walls.
Apache Pass Tour
The Apache Pass Tour is an exploration of the land of the great figures of Apache lore, Cochise and Geronimo. Highlights of this tour include Cochise Stronghold, and Chiricahua National Monument. The tour’s title comes from the strategically crucial piece of ground that became Fort Bowie. In another exclusive element, the DETOURS Adventure Van will traverse an unforgettable and seldom-traveled dirt road over the summit of the Chiricahua Mountains to the very spot of Geronimo’s 1886 surrender. Kartchner Caverns and the Copper Queen Mine Tour are an entertaining part of the adventure into this land of history.
Cities of the Ancients
The Cities of the Ancients Tour provides a glimpse into the history of North America’s oldest cultures, whom even the Native Americans call the “the ancient ones” or “the ones who have gone before”. DETOURS gives their guests the opportunity to follow in the silent footprints along the pathways of these secluded ancient cities and experience the legacy of the ancestral peoples of the Southwest. The tour focuses on The Four Corners region which was home to thousands of Native American Indians between 800 and 1300 A.D. Exploring guests will find themselves ducking though the doorways of cliff dwellings in Walnut Canyon National Monument and walking among the ancient city ruins of Chaco Canyon. The Navajo treasure, Canyon de Chelly National Monument is also featured with a Navajo-narrated jeep tour. A tour of ancient cities would not be complete without Mesa Verde National Park, which shelters over 600 documented sites and the largest collections of ruins and cliff dwellings of the ancestral puebloans. The peaceful silence and the history are tangible in these ancient cites of the Southwest.
All tours are conducted in a manner that is ecologically and culturally sensitive. DETOURS has scheduled departures for the new Native American tours posted on their web site
http://www.detoursaz.com and custom departures can be scheduled for groups of six or more. The company specializes in personalized day tours departing from Phoenix as well as an expanding inventory of multi-day tours. Contact
info@detoursaz.com or toll free at 1-866-438-6877.
