Arizona-New Mexico-Utah-Colorado

This was a long day, hence the delay in posting. We woke up very early to get to the Four Corners by 7am. On the way we stopped at every gas station looking for a deck of cards that said New Mexico on them. No luck. But we did make it to the Four Corners by 7am!

All four states!

All four states!

Onward to Mesa Verde, which is one of the coolest national parks visited thus far. We had an incredible tour guide, Craig, who knew a ton about what we were looking at and shared this info in a way that made us hang on every word. He also had some very humorous one-liners.

One of two coyotes we saw.

The inside of a kiva, an extremely sacred spiritual place. This village had eight kivas. They remained a nice 50 degrees all year round so they were great in the summer and only a small fire was needed in the winter. A tourist fell into this one a few years ago and a local tribe came that night and smoked it out to clear it of any bad medicine.

The Spruce Tree House cliff dwelling up close. It is estimated that 60-80 people lived in the 130 rooms.

Craig quotes: "The archeologists really don't like the ground squirrels digging here because ground squirrels don't document their findings." "...And then they made a rainbow appear and it reminded me of a hallucination I had in the 70s."

Above this village is a ledge where they grew crops like corn. How did they manage to build here? No idea.

Wild horses.

Mule deer! There were a group of them just chilling by the side of the road when a very rude sports car drove by very fast and revved its engine, causing them to scatter across the road. Good thing Lady has excellent brakes.

 After the great tour we made our way into Utah to visit the Hole in the Rock, which should really be named the Home in the Rock. This couple spent 12 years (eight to build, four to clean up) creating a home for themselves in a huge rock. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the home but it is amazing. It's 5,000 square feet and really had everything you could ever want. It started as just a diner and kitchen and eventually became their home. The husband liked to taxidermy animals and they were all there. Our favorite was the first one he ever did, his favorite horse. This thing was beyond scary. Again, it is very unfortunate that pictures were not allowed.

One of the many spectacular views we saw on our drive.

Hole in the Rock?

Hole in the Rock.