Hopi House - Mary Colter's Pueblo

Hopi House - Mary Colter's Pueblo

Photo: Austin Smith, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

A stop on Grand Canyon South Rim, a free self-guided tour.

Right beside El Tovar stands a building that looks like it grew out of a mesa. Hopi House opened on January 1, 1905, the first of Mary Colter's buildings at the Grand Canyon. Colter, an architect for the Fred Harvey Company at a time when few women worked in the field, modeled it on the stacked stone homes of Oraibi, a Hopi village that has been lived in for centuries, and Hopi workers did much of the building.

It was planned as a living museum where Hopi artisans lived and worked, making pottery, baskets and weavings in front of visitors, and it still sells Native American art today. Look for the ladders, small windows and terraced roofs borrowed from pueblo design.

The Hopi homeland lies east of the canyon, and the Hopi keep deep ties to it; in Hopi tradition, their ancestors emerged into this world at a place within the canyon. Browse slowly, and ask before photographing any artist at work.

Getting here: Hopi House sits just east of El Tovar, a one-minute walk across the lawn.

Did you know?: In 1931 Albert Einstein visited Hopi House and was photographed there wearing a Hopi headdress alongside Hopi men.

Photo op: From the rim side, frame the stepped roofline and wooden ladders against the open sky.

Nearby: Restrooms and water at Verkamp's Visitor Center; food at El Tovar and Bright Angel Lodge.

More on Wikipedia: Hopi House · Mary Colter · Oraibi, Arizona · Hopi

Stops on this tour

  1. Mather Point - Your First Big Look
  2. Yavapai Geology Museum - A Window on the Layers
  3. Trail of Time - A Million Years per Step
  4. El Tovar - A Grand Hotel on the Edge
  5. Hopi House - Mary Colter's Pueblo
  6. Kolb Studio - Brothers on the Brink
  7. Bright Angel Trailhead - The Old Path Down
  8. Hopi Point - The Sunset Stage
  9. Mohave Point - Listen for the Rapids
  10. Hermits Rest - Colter's Cabin at Road's End
  11. Yaki Point - Where the South Kaibab Begins
  12. Grandview Point - Copper, Mules and a Lost Hotel
  13. Lipan Point - The Canyon's Hidden Basement
  14. Desert View Watchtower - Colter's Tower and a Tribal Welcome