Four Corners Colorado

I woke up many times during the night, having nightmares of guys beating up on girls. Somehow it meant I managed to wake up before sunrise! The dawn's hazy glow was beautiful from our porch. I watched it for a little while, went back to sleep and woke up to the orange burst of the sun coming up. Quite lovely.

We showered, packed up and headed into the park. We were at the store at 9:30, and hiked around a bit to take pictures of the Spruce Tree house before they opened up at 10. We got Bob his sweatshirt at 30% off, then headed back. We stopped back at the room to grab his battery charger, and we were off!

It was gorgeous seeing the whole road out that we'd missed in the dark on the way in. Many of the views down into the canyons or out to town were quite lovely. On the other hand, maybe it's best I didn't see the steep edges when we were worn out and sleepy :)

Soon we were back at the main road, heading towards Mexican Hat. There were all sorts of really cool landscapes as we went, and it seemed that they changed every 20 minutes. We saw stratified rocks, soft, rounded rocks, red clay ground, chasm ground, desert ground, and more. We saw cows, horses, goats, sheep and even a cow roadkill.

Soon we were heading towards Four Corners. It really is like a small flea market with a square in the center, with an admission booth. $3 each to get in, and luckily there was pretty much nobody there when we arrived! I had plenty of time to stand on one foot on the spot, to spread eagle with one hand and foot on each spot, and much more. Bob poked his finger onto the spot :) It's the only place where four US states meet! We had spent a ton of time in Colorado, were about to spend a short time in Utah, and then lots of time in Arizona. Poor New Mexico only got the few moments we hung out in its "corner".

Finally we came around to Mexican Hat. Mostly known as the thing north of Monument Valley, it did in fact look like a Mexican man with a hat on :). On we went.

Monument Valley was really pretty. There are ALL sorts of movies that were filmed here. The Searchers. The Eiger Sanction. The beginning of Easy Rider. The mars scene of 2001. It was really cool looking, and we took many photos as we drove through.

Once that was done, the landscape became pretty unvarying. We were now driving through Navajo Nation for quite a long time. We turned, and now we were heading towards the Grand Canyon.

We arrived about 5pm, and the sun was just beginning to lower in the sky. We have a national parks pass so we didn't have to pay an entrance fee. We stopped at the various spots along the way in, taking pictures as the sun sank, and reached the main area just as the sun finished sinking. It was really pretty the whole way in, and we even saw a herd of mule deer along the road. Beautiful!

Yesterday (Sat) the entire area had been COMPLETELY sold out, which is why we made our reservations for Sunday. Even so, many hotels had no vacancy signs as we drove through the very little down near the canyon. If you're not able to get a room here, you have to drive an hour south to the next town. There aren't many restaurants either - just a Wendy's and a few in-hotel restaurants. No stores at all, really.

We went into the Day's Inn and checked in. THe room was certainly nice enough, for $139 rather than $159 due to AAA and the internet. Pricey, but that's the way it is in this area. Free internet and breakfast. We finished up the rest of our David Bruce petite sirah and flat bread and walked out to eat. The nearby hotel had a nice restaurant but it had an HOUR wait. We hung out into the lounge until they had a table for us. Dinner was nice enough, and soon we were back to the room and asleep.

I took a TON of photos today, so I've broken them up into three slideshows. That way you can see the photos that most appeal to you!

Mesa Verde to Four Corners Slideshow

Monument Valley Slideshow (driving from Four Corners to the Grand Canyon)

Grand Canyon Slideshow

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