Here we go again! Let’s pick back up in Moab, UT. Francisco and I tried to see some of the magnificent sites in Arches National Park, but were unfortunately pretty cold and wanted to make it down to Mesa Verde in time for the 1:00 tour. So, we snapped some pictures, hiked up just enough to catch a glimpse of the Delicate Arch, and fueled up for the next leg of our trip.
We drove south to Montecello and the veered east toward Colorado again. The landscape was interesting to watch as it changed from mountain desert to snowy plains and back into more mountains. This also appeared to be the bean-growing region -every farm and every town was sporting bean fields or bean something. Not many people on this road, though. Once we got to Cortez we were pretty hungry, so we stopped to eat. Unfortunately, this meant that we were about 30 minutes too late for the 1:00 tour at Mesa Verde. I think it was destiny, though, because we spent more time than we thought we would have, just exploring the other sites (from a distance, since they are closed in the winter). It was fun to speculate with Francisco about the lifestyle of these people and see the ruins of some of the first cities in the U.S. (this may only be super interesting for an urban planner…). We made our way back for the last tour of the day and got the Park Ranger tour guide all to our selves (for the first half). He took us down to see a refurbished kiva, but we couldn’t actually go in any of the homes. It was so neat to be that close to such an ancient (and surprisingly preserved) site. I recommend Mesa Verde to anyone who hasn’t already seen it. On the way out of the park we got to see the sunset again.
We discussed our travel plans over dinner in downtown Cortez (our first southwestern meal of the trip) and decided that Cortez didn’t have anything else to offer us. We got back into the car and headed to the Four Corners. Now, at this point, I had no idea what to expect at the four corners (for those of you unfamiliar, this is the corner of four states: Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico), but I assumed that there would be a monument that paid tribute to those states. What I didn’t realize is that it would be closed after 5:00. We almost missed it completely because there wasn’t even an illuminated sign telling us that this was the point. Francisco was quite disappointed that he couldn’t be in four states at once (I think it’s a residual fantasy from a Simpsons episode). We could only take a picture of the sign and move on. Welcome to Arizona.
It turns out that Francisco actually really enjoys driving at night. He didn’t want to stop in Kayenta, AZ (and there weren’t very many appealing hotel options), so we drove on to Tuba City, AZ. There weren’t very many options here, but at that point I was so tired and grumpy that I would’ve taken anything. We ended up getting the last room available and for a decent price too. And I crashed. I was saving my energy for the next day -We were headed to see the infamous Grand Canyon!
**The next installation of this road trip saga to come later.**
