Fall Wine 2209 – Part Three

Day Nine

Breaking down camp takes longer when things are muddy, but we were still out of there by 10:45am. The first part of the drive was boring, but then it got pretty. We planned a six hour day: drive for 2 hours, stop at a national park for 2 hours, and drive for 2 more hours.

Natural Bridges National Monument is a great little (free!) National Park complete with a good little Visitor’s Center. Unlike most of the arches at Arches (and several sites at several other places), these bridges are easy to see with ADA-accessible viewpoints. There is also a lot of hiking in this park if you would rather take 1-3 mile trails from one to the other.

After leaving Natural Bridges, we ran into a problem. After turning onto UT Hwy 261, we saw signs warning us not to be there. It’s in the video if you want to see the abbreviated antics.

Day Ten

Our adventure of the day was short, but grand.

We took the world’s most mis-placed roundabout in a non-town of nothing to the road for the Monument Valley park. (Monument Valley, UT was the address of our campground, but doesn’t exist. Monument Valley, AZ is a town.)
Drove across the state line into Arizona (my first time in the state)
Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park – waited in line to get in (for only the second time this year), saw the education panels inside, went to the gift shop (got another sticker for the Jeep), saw the views from there, and then took the scenic loop around the park.
Picnic with views at MVNTP.
We came back to the campground to find Miami losing. ::sigh:: The Aggies won, but it was close. :/

Day Eleven

Monument Valley, UT to Mancos, CO by way of Arizona and New Mexico and the famous Four Corners

What a visually boring drive. Geographically, it’s very interesting. We drove through the (tiny) rest of Utah, through some of Arizona, through the smallest corner of New Mexico, and back into Colorado. It was fun to hit four big states in one day. The monument is also cool and was a great spot for our lunch break.

There is a line for photos on this spot…and a three photo max rule. So this nearly barren photo is rare!
Also, funny story: Because people were coming out here in the middle of the night for “sex in four states at one time” they had to start closing the monument at 5:45pm. There is even a fence and a gate with barbed wire. I saw the story when it broke, but it wasn’t anything “dangerous”–just people having fun. I’m not sure the fence/gate was warranted.

Like most other places we’ve been on this (and the most recent) trip, the towns are small and have limited bandwidth for things like bars and internet. The local Mexican place was open until 9 (for a 6:20 game), so we headed there. Beer is alright, but the margs were very good. The food was great. And we met the nicest couple who gave us all kinds of local info about Mesa Verde National Park and a local cidery. Bonus: she reminded me of #RIPJessica. awwww. Maybe we’ll get lucky and see them at the cidery tomorrow for ~~Money~~ Monday Night Football.

Day Twelve

Mesa Verde National Park

First off, the Visitor Center for this park is the nicest we’ve seen. Not only is it gorgeous–the entry reminded me of L’s synagogue in Dallas–but it’s also an energy-boosting beast. The roof has water pipes to warm the water before delivering it back to the faucets for hand washing. The rain chains are ornate and practical. The building is designed to reflect summer heat and retain warmth in winter.

The park also has an enormous campground with lots of full hookups, which is rare for a National Park.

This park is a lot bigger than it seems. Under advice from the people we met the night before, we saw one of the two paths. There wasn’t time (for us) to see them both in one day.

However, our visit was three seasons all rolled into one day:

The warmth of the sun was like a spring day.
The gorgeous wildflowers (including a variety of lupine, like Texas) were still celebrating summer.
There were crisp breezes, and the leaves were just starting to turn yellow with a few hints of orange and red beginning the fall glory.

After our picnic, we took the moderate hike to the Step House where the Pueblo people lived. It was quite similar to the Gila Cliff Dwellings, but a bit more elaborate. While down there, we heard (and then saw) a Raven chortling. (Volume way up to hear him. LMK if you want to know where he is.)