Having gotten into Kayenta late last night we didn’t get to see anything of the town other than a crappy Burger King drive-thru (we’re trying to avoid fast food, but it’s not easy on the road!). It’s weird to arrive somewhere and not know what it looks like. We’re getting used to going to places that are new, where we don’t know what the lay of the land is, but in the dark it’s a different beast altogether. The morning light brings a surprise…not necessarily a good surprise, but a surprise nonetheless. Kayenta has many stray dogs, the aforementioned Burger King and not a lot else…time to make a move…maybe to state number 13: Utah??
As if yesterdays visit to the Grand Canyon wasn’t enough natural wonderment for us, today we took in Monument Valley; a large desert area with giant, red rock buttes that engulf the horizon. It’s pretty desolate, so you have to make sure you have a full tank of gas!
There’s not much to do except drive around, kind of like a drive-thru wildlife park without the wildlife. Most places we visit require us to park up and walk around, so it was a change to know the main attraction of the day was car based.
Considering we spent about 8 hours in the car today, we probably would have preferred something that stretched our legs…queue Four Corners.
Four Corners is the only point in America where four states meet together and this has somehow become a tourist attraction. A decent amount of effort has been put into creating the actual monument, but unfortunately it is literally in the middle of the desert, miles from civilisation. Still, it did give us an excuse to cross state number 14 off our list. What did we do in New Mexico to have it count towards visiting all 50 states? We peed…Thanks NM.
Leaving three of the states behind, we moved into state number 15: Colorado. Damn, Colorado is a good looking state. The word 'lush' comes to mind. Even though we’ve only made pit stops so far, they’ve all given us the impression that Colorado has a different feel to it than any other so far. It’s relaxed, it’s luscious, it’s like the people couldn’t care less about the rest of the world.
Once away from the desert area, finding gorgeous greenery was not what we expected and passing through the San Juan National Forest we officially hit fall (autumn to all my fellow Brits!). The greens, yellows and oranges meshed together to form a spectacular backdrop for our journey. Good job too, we were getting bored of your plain old green trees!
So, we’ve crossed back across the Rocky Mountains and this can only mean one thing…We’re finished with the West side of America! Wow, a quarter of the country completed!
So, until tomorrow…
Ani
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