My dad and I visited Mesa Verde National Park today, spending a good three to four hours in the park. It's fairly easy to spend more time here, as Mesa Verde is one of the best known archaeological sites in the world. The park was established in 1906, mainly to preserve the spectacular cliff dwelling ruins of the Anasazi Indian civilization. There's much to see here, including the Far View Ruins, a densely populated area during the 400 years that the Anasazi lived on the mesa.

There are two guided tours you can take. The Cliff Palace tour requires you to climb several 10 foot ladders, and the Balcony House tour involves climbing a 32 foot cliffside ladder, and then crawling (we're talking hands and knees here, folks) through a 12 foot tunnel. The first tour is viewable from three different locations in the park, but this ladder.. er.. latter one isn't. It's only accessible on a guided tour. Each tour costs under two dollars, and you can only do one tour a day, per person. (Stupid rule if you ask me.) Unfortunately, both tours were mostly booked up until late afternoon, so we ended up driving around on our own and doing the self-guided thing. Unless you're in fairly good physical shape, I'd suggest passing up on the guided tours. I think it was just as much fun without them anyhow.

We left Cortez and headed west on 160. Eventually, it split away from the commercial aspect of the road onto its own road to nowhere. The gas stations stopped. No stores. Not even jewelry for sale on the side of the highway. Nothing. Just dunes, desert, mesas, rocks and bushes.

Almost thirty minutes later, I saw it. "Welcome to Four Corners." A tourist attraction in the middle of nowhere. Well, actually, it's in the middle of nowhere surrounded by four states. People stood on the small platform, politely waiting their turn to stand on the spot. The only little two foot wide area in the United States where you can truly say you're not in one, not two, not even three, but four places at once... Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.

As goofy and touristy as it sounds, it was kind of fun standing on that spot. (Later on, when it came close to closing time at 5pm and the crowds had scattered, my dad took a photo of me sprawled out on my back, one limb in each state. Corny, I know, but it just had to be done.) One man had his dogs sit on the spot. One or two kids were running around in circles from state to state to state to state to state to state... Most people just stood there, blindly waiting for a friend to snap a photo as the sun hit them square in the eyes. "Take the picture! I'm going blind here!" Quite a few people (myself included) aimed their cameras down on the spot and captured the small, circular marker on film, signifying that that spot is where four states meet.

We paused just outside Four Corners to snap a photo of New Mexico's state line (I had missed it the first time I crossed), and we continued on into Arizona. We eventually arrived in Tuba City, just an hour shy of the Grand Canyon, after a long haul across desert, mountains and more desert. If you plan on visiting the Grand Canyon and are thinking of using Tuba City as a place to stay (It's a major stop in this region of Arizona), you might be interested to know there's only one hotel in the area and, luckily, we're in it, so prices might be higher and reservations might be needed.

Tonight was also laundry night! I mention this only because my dad insisted he take a photo of me. (God only knows why) Of course, I'll add it to this page when I return home. My dirty laundry for all the world to see. Joy. I can't wait.

See you on the road...

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