Day 4 - Jun 1, 2008 Last updated: 6/12/08 9:00pm PT
Today we had tickets to the 10am tour of the Long House cliff dwelling. This is on the other side of the park, and they suggest it takes 45 minutes to drive there from the Lodge. The road is closed until 9am, so you can’t get an early start. This kind of set back our plan for the day a bit, but not too bad. Once you get to the other side of the park, you get on a tram which drives you around to all the sites.
I liked the Long House tour a little better than the Cliff Palace, mostly because you get to go in the back of the dwelling. It was very hot, even at 10am. Once you got into the back of the cliff, it was very pleasant. As with the Cliff House tour, we had an older ranger.
These are hard to see, but they are actual hand and foot holes used by the Anasazi to climb down the cliff face. (The bigger depressions). I’m standing about 3 feet in front of them.
The Long House
Water (and weeds) in the back of the cave.
Back on the tram. Here’s a kiva that hasn’t been excavated.
Kodak House
Lunch was in Cortez at Pippo’s. Tiny little diner. Had a Navajo Taco, which is Navajo Fry Bread with Chili, cheese, lettuce, tomato. Delicious. After lunch, we went to the Anasazi Heritage Center in Dolores, CO. Skip this one. It’s a smaller duplicate of the museum in Mesa Verde.
You can’t be this close to 4 corners and not stop. This is the only place in the US where you can touch 4 states at the same time. You drive through New Mexico to get here. About 1 mile of New Mexico. Seriously. Yeah, I know I colored in New Mexico on the map on the front page of this website. It still counts. We did about 24 miles of Arizona.
We got here late in the afternoon and it was 100 degrees outside. One kid laid down to be in 4 states at once, and bounced off the surface like he’d been thrown into a large frying pan. I chose to stand up. My feet are big enough to cover 4 states.
There is nothing out here. This part of the country seems emptier than North Dakota. Here’s an aerial shot of 4 corners (from a book). This is an old shot, now there are a lot of stands with people selling trinkets. This is Navajo land. We paid $6 just to get in.
We spent the night in Bluff, UT. Don’t blink if you ever drive through here or you’ll miss it. We stayed at the Desert Rose Inn, and for being in the middle of absolutely nowhere, this was a really nice place. Seems new. Large, clean, comfortable, air conditioned rooms.