DAY 4
On day 4 we slept in, well kind of. At least this day it was already light when we hit the road, and I’m glad because we saw something interesting that we had missed in the darkness the night before- A giant “Jesus is Watching You” billboard strategically placed next to an adult video store. Finding it kind of funny and a bit odd at the same time, we of course had to pull over and take pictures of it. Sadly, however, this appeared to be the only interesting about Farmington, NM so soon enough we were back on the road.
White House Ruins
Canyon de Chelly was our first destination of the day, where we hiked to the very photogenic White House Ruins. Without hiring a Navajo guide, the only way to get there is by walking the 2.5 mile (rountrip) trail from the canyon rim about 800 feet above. I really didn’t know too much about the canyon before our visit and was surprised to learn that people still live there. We found ourselves sharing the path with a very elderly lady, her dog, and a flock of several hundred sheep. This level of authenticity had me thinking that this definitely not your average National Park site. There is basically no easy way to get there; Chinle, AZ is out of the way in the middle of nowhere (much of this day was spent driving) and that hike we took was not easy, however the visit was well worth the effort and I’m glad we did it.
So what would a trip be without a visit to the region’s namesake, the Four Corners… well, there’s not much to it- a plaque in the ground and a few plywood-sided gift shops, but seeing as how this tribal park was on the way back to Durango, we felt compelled to stop and get the obligatory pictures of ourselves standing in four states at a time (and in various poses). It seemed somehow fitting that this was the end of our trip, getting to revisit CO, UT, AZ and NM and all at once.
After a relatively short drive back to Durango, we had just enough time to wander around the town (something we had neglected to do on Day 1) before catching our mid-afternoon flight back to California. At the airport, we sat at the gate, scrolling through the hundreds of pictures we had taken before the plane arrived. Once we boarded, I think we both were sound asleep before the wheels ever left the ground. It had been a very long 4 days.