Monument Valley and Mesa Verde

We got lucky with the rain in the Grand Canyon. But that night the rain rolled in and it was a very large storm. It covered the north east part of Arizona. Basically is rained on and off most of the day making driving a challenge and casting a pall over our visit to Monument Valley (#11). Here we are with the new sign at the entrance to the Navajo Nation Park.



Even with the overcast skies, the famous structures were quite striking. Here are the two mittens.



Here is the famous view of the three large towers which are in the iconic features of the valley.



Another angle of the towers.



Some interesting tower structures lining the valley.



You can see some tower structures in the backdrop of the north mitten.



Monument Valley's version of Balanced Rock. Pretty cool.



Because it looked like the rain would continue throughout that day we gave up the idea of going to Natural Bridges National Monument and instead headed towards four corners. The place where you can be in 4 states at the same time. Here you can see the marker that identifies this unique spot in the United States. We got lucky. The four Corners site is under construction and only open on Saturdays. It was Saturday.



Here Alex is in Arizona, Diane in New Mexico, as Bart straddles Utah and Colorado.



Alex's version of being in four states at the same time.



We stayed in Cortez Colorado, got an early start, and headed to Mesa Verde National Park (#12). Here the primary attractions are not natural as much as historical. Here are some of the most elaborate and well preserved examples of villages of early north american residents. Here they built there homes under large rock overhangs. Because they were protected and made of stone they remain relatively intact for us to appreciate. The thousand year old skills necessary to build these dwellings is very impressive.



This is the Tall House complex.



Here is Cliff Palace. The iconic image of Mesa Verde. We were going to take a ranger led tour later in the day.



Looking down on Cliff Palace, it gives a good sense of how deep the buildings go. It must have been amazing to see it 800 years ago when it was full of inhabitants.



We had to climb down to the Cliff Palace, which is believed to be the largest Cliff Dwelling in North America. The ranger leading the tour did a great job.



This picture of Alex give you a sense for the size of the buildings which were terraced and multistory. Impressive!



Diane provides some perspective for how tall the building are because of the terracing.



It is such an amazing place.



Everyone in the family loved it!



We then had to climb out up some narrow and steep steps.



And up three 10 foot ladders.



Wow! Thats it, the end of the show. Time to go home. This huge Mule Deer Buck showed up to say goodbye and send us on our way home. We elected to go with plan B. Head strait home and take turns driving. We left Mesa Verde and 21 hours later were home. We visited twelve Parks, many for the first time. Six more Junior Ranger badges. It was a wonderful road trip