Six Places at Once

Tuesday, March 25, 2008, approximately 11:30 am
This is the biggest moment of the trip for Jessica and me. We have arrived at the Four Corners, the one and only place in the United States where four states meet at one point. Having a lifelong dream of being in every state, this is the ideal location to visit. Four states in one shot! This momentous occasion was worth every cent of the $3 entry fee. We prepared for this moment days ahead of time and had determined exactly how we would be in four places at once. Little did we know, we would be in SIX places at once: Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, the Navaho Nation and the Ute Mountain Reservation. Wow!

Adrian did a pretty good job of pretending like he wasn’t excited to be there. He was a good sport and took lots of pictures for us. He also bought my t-shirt, a magnet, and some Navajo fry bread, making him pretty much amazing to the girl who failed to get cash at the last ATM stop.

As we left Four Corners, I realized going to Mesa Verde National Park was only about an hour out of our way. Although we briefly discussed in on the ride from Seattle, we hadn’t realized how close we would get to it. Since it was still early in the day, we decided to make a detour to see the cliff dwellings. Mesa Verde National Park was the first National Park opened to protect man-made achievements.

We drove up and into the park, arriving at Spruce Tree Terrace. In the parking lot, we were excited to find both North Carolina AND North Dakota to add to our growing list of states. I think we topped out at either 40 or 41, plus 3 Canadian provinces. Jessica has the list in her sketch book. We hiked down to the Spruce Tree House, which is the best preserved cliff dwelling. They had restored the roof on one of the kivas and provided a ladder so we could go down inside it.

The rest of the dwellings you can only see from the road during the spring. During the summer you can take ranger led tours of them. We saw the Balcony House and the Cliff Palace. The Cliff Palace was the largest cliff dwelling.

After Mesa Verde, we headed to Moab, Utah where we were spending the night. We arrived at the Apache Motel in early evening. Apparently John Wayne had stayed here, so the lobby had some John Wayne memorabilia, including a roll of John Wayne toilet paper that said “It’s rough, it’s tough, and it doesn’t take crap off anyone.” Jessica and Adrian loved it so we inquired where it could be purchased. The motel operator informed us it was sold by her granddaughter in downtown Moab, so our next destination was determined. We took a walk to downtown Moab, bought our TP and went out for pizza. After pizza, we drove into Arches to admire how bright the stars can be when you’re in the middle of nowhere. We caught a few shooting stars and then headed back to the motel.