Polacca Wash, Arizona

One of the major drainage pathways of the Black Mesa plateau, located on the Hopi Reservation in Northern Arizona. Black Mesa rises to about 7,000 feet above sea level, and tilts gradually downward to the southwest, where its four main washes form: Moenkopi, Dinnebito, Oraibi, and Polacca, each named after the Hopi communities that sit on top of the rims of the three “fingers” of Black Mesa that mark the Hopi homeland. Polacca Wash runs down the south side of First Mesa, the easternmost mesa.