Monument Valley

The next stop on our Southwest road trip was Monument Valley. This area near the four corners includes a Navajo national park, beautiful sweeping vistas... and not much else. We arrived in early evening and made a quick dinner with supplies from Gouldings grocery before settling in to our lodging. We got a cabin at The View, inside the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. The cabin was small, but the selling point was the phenomenal view. We had an unobstructed view over the valley, perfect for both sunrise and sunset. Highly recommended and worth the cost! We did a little bit of stargazing before going to bed, and woke up early to watch the sunrise.

Classic view of monument valley, including "the mittens."

Cabins perched above the valley.

Here comes sunset.

Brilliant colors across the mittens as the sun set behind us.

And a brilliant sunrise.

The view from our cabin was unmatched.

Classic desert southwest vistas.

In the morning we entered the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park loop drive, which started just a few hundred feet from our cabin. It's a dirt road that takes about an hour or two and has several great viewpoints. They were limiting the number of cars due to COVID, but since we started right when it open we got in with no wait. The scenic road has amazing views and lets you get closer to some of the rock formations.

Sunrise from the loop trail.

Great views all around.

Our trusty rental car.

We left Thomas here holding up a boulder.

Classic Southwest scenery.

Tiny Paul on a ledge.

The rest of the day was a meandering road trip all the way to Moab, Utah, passing through a variety of desert landscapes. Just a short distance to the north we passed through "Forrest Gump point," a part of Highway 163 where the famous running scene was filmed. It's known for views of the long straight highway dipping across the desert toward the monuments. Further down the road was Mexican Hat, a tiny town (population: 31) perched alongside the San Juan River.

You'll tell us if a car is coming, right?

Hasta luego, Monument Valley!

Mexican Hat has seen better days, but the buildings look cool perched above the river.

We continued north to Goosenecks state park, a small park with several overlooks of giant bends in the San Juan River set deep in a winding river gorge. There's not much else to do here, but it's worth the stop for the views alone. A bit further down the road we made a quick stop at the Sand Island petroglyphs, then had a late lunch at Patio Diner in Blanding.

The Goosenecks viewpoint overlooks a couple of huge "entrenched meanders"

Double goosenecks!

Some of the petroglyphs at Sand Island

Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger!

Monument Valley was just a stop on the way to Moab and the National Parks there, but we're really glad we spent a bit of extra time here. The pandemic has really impacted operations at restaurants and hotels in the Navajo nation, so make sure you plan ahead (especially for food) if you're thinking of staying here a bit. Next stop... Arches and Canyonlands!

Chaco Canyon, Durango, Mesa Verde, and the Four Corners

Northwestern New Mexico is a dry region with not very many people, but a lot of natural desert beauty. For the second leg of our Southwest roadtrip, we left Santa Fe and took a meandering route toward Colorado. We traveled through the town of Los Alamos (where the atomic bomb was created) and across Valles caldera, created by a supervolcano over a million years ago. We has sweeping views of the caldera, but didn't have much time to stop or hike. The road continuing west turned into a surprisingly rough dirt road for a bit as it curved through the mountains. We made it through and continued on to our next destination, Chaco Culture National Historic Park, which required more dirt road driving.

Paul visited Chaco way back around 2006 as part of a geology field trip, and was eager to return. Its an impressive but little known UNESCO world heritage site, and was home to Ancestral Puebloans from around 900-1150CE. The site includes the remains of the largest buildings built in North America until the 18th century. While it is kind of in the middle of nowhere, it's worth a visit!

Well, the sign isn't lying. It's a big valley. Super pretty!

A large section of the road to Chaco Canyon is not paved. Be prepared for the bumps.

Obligatory National Park entry sign photo. Bonus World Heritage Site status!

Back wall of the main settlement site at Pueblo Bonito.

You can get a sense of the scale from the hill behind. There's also a cliff hike that gives the best view but it was very hot so we skipped out on that.

You can see where all the walls stood separating rooms.

David squeezing through a littttttle door.

Everyone took turns posing in doors!

Inside view. This would have been at least two-stories. The wood pegs separated where the floors used to be.

Peek-a-boo!

There are lots of petroglyphs around the site.

Seeking shade along the back wall of Chetro Ketl (another small pueblo just a few minutes walk from Pueblo Bonita).

 

There are a number of giant kivas can be found throughout the park.

Paul's sunny part of the day. His lizard friend. He was hanging out near Casa Rinconada.

It's hard to imagine many people lived off the land here, as it's so arid. Researchers think Chaco only had a small residential population, with larger groups visiting for annual ceremonies.  

Leaving Chaco, we backtracked on the dirt road to Highway 550 and continued north into Colorado. We arrived in Durango in the early evening. Durango was a surprisingly cute town, with historic buildings and a walkable main street packed with restaurants and shops. We had dinner at Switchback tacos and walked around enjoying the beautiful evening weather before a drink at the Bookcase and Barber (a "secret" speakeasy where you enter through a small functioning barber shop). Our hotel, the General Palmer, was a historic and charming hotel built in 1898. Durango had a lot of great architecture and is a really good base if you're exploring the region. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time here, as we would have loved to spend a day taking the Durango Silverton train.

Lobby at the General Palmer Hotel.

Our hotel was definitely not haunted...

Yummy dinner tacos! Switchback had lovely outdoor dining on Main Street.

Mmmm, michelada.

Old timey truck in front of a bar made from a converted gas station. #Colorado

Downtown Durango is a hopping little place with many great historic buildings.

Speakeasy bar The Bookcase and Barber. Honestly, probably the best cocktails of the trip. Our table was an old piano with a glass top.

The next morning we grabbed a quick coffee at Hermosa, and then got on the road to Mesa Verde National Park, about a 40 minute drive away. Like Chaco, Mesa Verde has impressive structures from Ancestral Puebloans, and is also a UNESCO world heritage site. It has iconic views of stone structures under overhanging cliff walls. The park also has expansive views of the surrounding areas, and a number of smaller archeological sites. We spent about half the day driving to different sites and overlooks - luckily it wasn't too crowded. Another national park checked off the list!

Sunrise in Durango.

Call me when you want...call me when you need...call me in the morning, I'll bring the coffee...

Durango was built as a railroad town to exploit natural resources. The train is also a tourist draw for a scenic route that goes up into the mountains.

Couldn't pass up the Mesa Verde National Park sign. Now with 50% more old-timey fonts.

Stoic tree atop the mesa at knife's edge.

The monkey park is not only a monkey. The view and the canyon also look out for!

Spruce Tree House viewpoint.

Not a bad place to pop a sit and take in the view.

This was the tallest structure, Square Tower House, at four stories.

Cliff Palace from the upper overlook. The NPS wasn't allowing people to go up to the site at this time.

Leaving Mesa Verde, we had a late lunch in Cortez Colorado, and continued on to the four corners area where Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico come together. We stopped at the exact four corners spot, owned by the Navajo Nation, which is a bit of a tourist trap. But there's nowhere else you can be in four states at once!

Mole enchiladas at La Casita de Cortez. Would recommend.

This isn't technically where they all meet due to a surveying error...but it's close enough.

This undoubtedly would work better if there were four of us...but here we go anyway.

Been a hot minute since David did a jumping shot, but here we are.

We rounded out the day at our mini-cabin in Monument Valley, but we'll save that for it's own post!