Colorado is not a new state for us, we've been here twice before, but for only 3-days on each visit. This time we plan to spend a considerably longer visit.
Maybe next week we'll be able to find time to properly visit this area and check it off our list.
Today it's all about getting Tricia somewhere that we can have the A/C on, get an unlimited hot water shower, maybe get some laundry done and check out that lunch buffet they offer in the casino's restaurant.
We were both happy with the Lunch Buffet yesterday, so we decided to give it another try this morning for breakfast. Again, the food was fresh and very reasonably priced.
While I spoke with the cook as he was preparing my custom made omelette this morning he asked what we had planned for the day. When I told him of our plans to visit the nearby National Monument this 30-something year old said he had lived his entire life in this county and had never heard of the Yucca House National Monument. He asked if it was new and I happened to know it was established in 1919, so no, it's not new.
We have two sightseeing destinations for today. The first is located just 6-miles north of the campground and is probably one of the least known of our National Monuments.
Access to the Monument is down a gravel County Road that dead ends at private property. It felt a bit odd to basically be parking in someones very wide driveway, but the National Monument signs were there, so I felt OK doing it.
YUCCA HOUSE NATIONAL MONUMENT
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This sign and rickety sidewalk are the only indications that you are in the right place.
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Once passed the first gate there is more sidewalk down to a second gate.
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At the second gate is a journal inside a box where you are asked to sign in.
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Even from the second gate the pueblo ruins are already within sight.
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This one wall is the most intact brickwork of the entire site.
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The other side of this wall was once the interior of the dwelling...
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...but as you can see it's entirely filled with dirt and shrubs.
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You can see through the gate where ROVER is parked.The red roof is the property owners home and the white building is a 5-car garage.
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Leaving the Monument site you can see this entire valley is now agricultural land.
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Tricia thought the early morning sun shining through the irrigation sprinklers looked cool.
For our second sightseeing destination we'll have to drive 6-miles back south, right passed the campground, and then proceed an additional 28-miles south. This will take us out of Colorado, barely, and has us visiting New Mexico where the entrance drive to the Four Corners Monument is located.
Just like Monument Valley over in Arizona, this is a Navajo Nation Tribal Park and they charge an $8 per person entrance fee. Only here you don't get to travel around on a 17-mile Scenic Drive. What you do get is a few pit toilet buildings, alot of additional Port-A-Potties, a couple of vendors selling food and dozens of Native Arts and Crafts booths selling handmade jewelry and souvenirs.
There also happens to be the geographically unique location where four states come together. If you're expecting anything more than that, you're going to leave dissapointed.
We were in and out of here in well under 30-minutes. That included time to purchase several trinkets and take all the photos we needed. Of course we were there early and noticed there was now a line of cars at the entrance gate as we were leaving.
FOUR CORNERS MONUMENT
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Off US-160, as it clips the northwest corner of New Mexico, is the Four Corners Monument.
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There are nine flags flying over the Four Corners Monument.The U.S. flag, the four state flags and the four tribal flags that share the Monument.
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There are vendor stalls surrounding the four sides of the monument.
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Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah are engraved around the center of the monument.
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This survey marker is located in the exact center of the monument.
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Here I am collecting my border crossings, this one between Arizona and Colorado...
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...and this one between New Mexico and Utah. Only 10 more to go to have all 107.
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Here's Tricia! Left foot in UT, right foot in NM, left hand in AZ and right hand in CO.And that's how it's done people! See, you can be in four places at one time.
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