From Cortez to Moab

Early on Monday morning we drove out to Mesa Verde National Park. The interesting thing about this park, besides beautiful landscapes is the collection of buildings in the cliffs built by ancient Indians.

After the park we made a small stop at Dolores, CO for more stamps and took of in the direction of missed opportunities. Like I said before we missed Four Corners. So we figured we’ll back track a little bit and will take a longer route to Moab.

Four Corners is a very small, but interesting monument. We all took part in trying to be in 4 states at once, took a bit of pictures and tried out some Navajo meals (fried bread with all kinds of stuff).

By this time we were trying to decide if we can still make it to Natural Bridges National Monument. The park closes at 5, the drive there was 2 hours¹ and it was 3:00pm already. Plus in order to get there we would have to make another significant detour and it would be pretty upsetting to get there only to see the closed gates.

We decided to try still. I keep getting amazed by the beauty and the feats that nature performed in this part of the country. No photo can capture it, you just have to see it. We drove through the back country again, surrounded by mountains and canyons of different shapes and colors.

We arrived to the gates of Natural Bridges at 4:40 only to find that the visitor center closes at 4:30pm. However we got lucky, as the people didn’t leave yet and they were kind enough to let us in and get our stamps.

After that we drove to the trail with overlooks. Now I was absolutely amazed again by these breathtaking views. A huge deep canyon with actual bridges of enormous size made out of mountains themselves. Again, you just need to see it to actually understand how magnificent the are.

The absolute lack of human intervention and sounds. Only the wind, singing of birds, clear air and the beauty of nature.

The drive to Moab was again filled with multiple stops to take pictures of the surroundings. We got there relatively early (around 8pm), ate at the local brewery and went to sleep.

P. S. I don’t have much time to write, so everything is turning out to be short without much detail. The experience itself though is absolutely unforgettable.

Post written on April 22, 2008.