Day four ended at the bottom of a dirt road we could not see, and with a gas station clerk telling us to go drive it again in daylight.
We drove back up Cigarette Springs Road in the morning. One of us white knuckled the steering wheel and the other white knuckled the door handle. Coming down at us were massive RVs pulled by trucks, and trucks pulling trailers, snaking their way down a road barely wide enough for one vehicle. When I looked back down behind us there was a steady stream of them coming up.
Photos from Cigarette Springs and Valley of the Gods
Valley of the Gods came first. We poked around, took some photos to say we had been there, and moved on. It is majestic country in its own right. But we had already decided to spend our time at Monument Valley, since we were going to have to pay to get in there.
Monument Valley was quiet and vast and empty. We stopped constantly, got out, took photos, stood around looking at it. You could see the dust on the wind and you could hear it.
The whole time I kept waiting for a roadrunner to come through with a coyote behind it. Or a tumbleweed to bounce across the road with a rattlesnake sound. Or some cowboy music to start up out of nowhere. None of it ever came.
Photos from Monument Valley
Four Corners was quick. The place was empty, and even the little booths and stands where locals sell handmade goods were shut down. We pulled in, looked around, took a couple of photos, and got back on the road.
The concept of Four Corners is much grander than the actual place. It is in the same family as Mount Sunflower, the highest point in Kansas. You stop because it is fun to say you have been there, but there is not much there other than to stop.
We got to Mesa Verde late in the day. Back then you could take yourself around. You walked up to the dwellings, went in, and stood in them on your own time. That has changed. Every cliff dwelling except Step House now requires a reservation on a ranger led tour, booked two weeks out on Recreation.gov, and they sell out fast.
They had found a little green paradise in the middle of an enormous desert, and the sun was their biggest threat. So they built for it. They understood the seasons. They knew how air moved and where the wind came from. It is amazing to me how ingenious people were, and still are, at solving problems long before they had any of the tools we have now.
Photos of Mesa Verde
The time-lapse video below covers day five of the trip.
Next in the series: day six, the long drive home.
