A Colorado State of Mind: Four Corners Road Trip, Day 1- Durango and Mesa Verde NP

I hadn’t been this excited for a trip in awhile. For over a month I had been studying the map that would take us into Navajo Land- AAA’s Indian Country Guide Map. I had carefully highlighted our route- 1700 miles and roughly 26 hours of driving, while marking all of our stops. Every few days I’d pull the map out to look at it… in my head dreaming “and on day 2 we’ll be in Monument Valley…” The roads and routes that appeared the most remote on the map also held the most intrigue and mystery “when we get here, we’ll be out there, but when we get here we’ll really be out there.” The aptly named map and our route took us through the heart of Indian land, not just the massive Navajo reservation, but that of the Ute, Hopi, Laguna, Tesuque, and Ohkay Owingeh.

To prepare for our mostly desert drive, we brought a few gallons of water, a cooler containing mostly breakfast and lunch items (hard boiled eggs, yogurt, meat, cheese and bread) and more water, a bin of toys with many strung along a back seat row of links, a box full of coffee and food paraphernalia (electric teapot, cone filter, coffee, and various dried foods), roughly 30 CDs, and clothes for pretty much every type of weather extreme.

Our first overnight stop was spent in Durango, roughly a 5 hour drive from home. Our hotel was a Groupon find, a downtown Best Western with all the perks of a chain hotel- indoor pool and courtyard, free happy hour by the pool where we indulged in a few wildly delicious local brews, and mediocre breakfast buffet. Had we been up for a ride on the Durango- Silverton Narrow Gauge Train or a night of bar hopping, it would have been the perfect location.

We left Durango on a clear, cold morning and headed for Mesa Verde National Park, our last stop in Colorado. Mesa Verde NP holds some of the world’s best preserved cliff dwellings, built by the Anasazi Pueblo Indians, between 600 and 1300 AD. This is some of the oldest architecture you will find in the US. We took a short, albeit steep hike down to Spruce Tree House, the only major cliff dwelling open in the winter. While exploring the Spruce House, carved into a cliff nestled deep in the cool mountains, it was clear that the protected earthen homes provided both shelter and a spiritual oasis for the Anasazi.