Day 7 – A Window, the Wind, and Warriors

The sun was out all day today as we traversed Arizona. There were so many choices of roadways, where would the wind blow us? We headed out from Page onto the scenic Hwy 98 with Navajo Sandstone cliffs to the north and periodically solitary sculpted rocks towered above the sagebrush flatlands on either side of the highway.

Our next choice was to cross the Navajo and Hopi Reservations on Hwy 264. This road travelled up over around and down several mesas with only scattered villages. As we drove, we noted the highway was designated the Code Talker Highway for the Navajo Marines who helped the Allied forces during WWII. 

Camp was in the town of Window Rock, which was designated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs as the center of the Navajo Nation. We made camp for the night at the Navajo Museum. Later in the evening, a short drive from camp brought us to the park at the base of Window Rock which is a huge wind eroded sandstone sculpture that allows you to glimpse the sky beyond. 

What we didn’t know is that this park is a memorial to the Navajo Code Talkers who helped the Allies in the Pacific theatre of WWII. The unwritten Navajo language was unbreakable by the Japanese. Initially just 29 Navajo Marines developed a military code of their native language. They then trained an additional 400 Navajo marines the battle specific terms. The communications work of the Code Talkers saved countless lives during battles for control of islands in the Pacific, such as Saipan, Wake, and Okinawa. All of those were islands that Pat’s dad, Howard Wood, fought on. The Code Talkers were likely responsible for the fact that Howard, along with many other Americans, were able to return home to their families. 

What led us to this remote corner of Arizona with this connection to the Wood family, when we had so many choices? We think it may have been the wind or an angel whispering in our ears.