Window Rock

Window Rock (Navajo: Tségháhoodzání) is a small town in Apache County, in the state of Arizona in the United States of America. It is significant beyond its size as the administrative center of Navajo Nation, the country's largest Indian reservation and an important tourist destination.

Get in

Window Rock is just west of the New Mexico state line and is more easily reached by road from New Mexico than from Arizona. NM SR 264 leads from Gallup on Interstate highway 40 (following historic Route 66) to the town. The southwestern approach to the town is via US highway 191 from I-40.

Get around

Navajo Nation Council Chambers

It's a small town; just walk, bike or drive.

See

• Navajo Nation Museum, Library, & Visitor's Center, Hwy 264 & Postal Loop Road., (1/4th mile west of Arizona/New Mexico State border. 26 miles from Gallup), ☎ [phone]. Museum is open from 8AM-6PM (winter hours)/8AM-7PM (summer hours) Tuesday-Friday, 8AM-5PM Monday and Saturday. The modern Navajo Nation Museum is dedicated to preserving and interpreting the rich and unique culture of the Navajo Nation. Native displays, a book and gift shop, snack bar, auditorium, outdoor amphitheater, information kiosk, library, and on-site traditional Navajo hogan complete the center. Free to Public.  
• 🌍 Navajo Nation Zoo and Botanical Park, ☎ [phone]. 10 am-4:30 pm Mon- Sat. The only zoo in the U.S. owned by a Native American tribe, the Navajo Zoo focuses on animals native to the reservation and the Southwest. Free. (updated Nov 2017)

Do

Buy

See the Navajo Nation article for a discussion of Navajo rugs and other distinctive arts and crafts of the region. Navajo Arts and Crafts Enterprises is headquartered in Window Rock (SR 264 just east of the center of town) and may be worth a visit, not so much for buying goods as for learning about other places in the region for buying them.

Eat

Try out the local frybread stands, most near the downtown fleamarket.

• Cociana De Dominguez (Hwy 264, Rt 12, Suite 16), ☎ [phone]. (updated Nov 2016)
• Mikasa 2 (Navajo Nation Shopping Center, Hwy 264 and Rt 12). Sun-Thurs 10:30 AM- 9:00 PM; Fri-Sat. 10:30 AM- 10:00 PM. Chinese and other Asian cuisines. (updated Nov 2016)

Drink

Alcoholic beverages are prohibited within Navajo Nation. If you simply must have a beer, Gallup, New Mexico is only a few miles away, but bar-hopping there may expose you to some hostility, owing to problems with alcoholism in Navajo Nation.

Sleep

• Quality Inn Navajo Nation Capital, 48 W. Highway 264, ☎ [phone]. Check-in: 3PM, check-out: 11AM. (updated Dec 2018)
• Navajoland Inn & Suites, 392 W. Hwy. 264, Saint Michaels (3 miles from Window Rock), ☎ [phone]. (updated Nov 2016)

Go next

• Window Rock is a good base camp from which to visit some of the Navajo Nation trading posts and look for Navajo rugs and other folk art. Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site, near Ganado, is a unit of the United States National Park System, but is also a working post with a good collection of rugs and jewelry. Posts at Crystal (picturesque setting, quite different from the desert you might be expecting), Two Grey Hills (a particularly noted rug-weaving region), and Wide Ruin are also close.
• Other nearby national parks and monuments include Canyon de Chelly National Monument to the north and Petrified Forest National Park to the southwest along I-40.