RoadTrip: Four States at One Time

We followed up the long day driving from Colorado Springs to Santa Fe with another long day. We had planned in stopping at Bandelier National Monument before trying to find a small natural hot spring in the area that was recommended by my former coworker.

We started the day off with some breakfast at the hotel, including some bread that we saved in a ziplock bag to use for sandwiches later. Some call that cheap or stealing. We called it trying to be resourceful.

We got to Bandelier quickly and painlessly and this made our idea of getting all the way to Mesa Verde seem like it would be a breeze. Neither of us had any real idea what Bandelier was. Even as we pulled in to the parking lot, we were still confused as to why it was called a national monument and not a national park.

Porous Rock at Bandelier

We had made our way, by car, down in to a river bottom. There were trees and greenery along the stream and white or cream colored rock cliffs. The rocks were incredibly porous and chalky, looking almost like Swiss cheese. After wandering around the visitors center we figured out that an ancient tribe of Native Americans linked to present day Navajos used to live in the area. They dug holes in the rocks to use as shelters. Pretty weak National Monument if you ask me, but I understood seeing how some of it was man made that it can be classified as a monument.

Exiting a Shelter at Bandelier National Monument

We linked on to the back of a tour for a bit before realizing that each time we came to a dwelling all 30 people in the tour would walk in and then walk out, slowly of course. So we jumped in front and started the self guided tour: reading the signs.


Our next adventure was to find the Spence Hot Springs, which according to our map was only a few miles down the road.  It wasn't in the direction of the highway but it was generally the way we wanted to go which was North and West towards Mesa Verde.  After only 1 U-turn we found the parking area for the hot springs which was little more than a pull off from the road with a sign that said "Nudity is NOT Allowed."  I was hoping all the college girls would not have seen that sign. 

Spence Hot Springs

We knew it was a little bit into the woods so we changed into our swimsuits and started walking down the trail.  After about a 7 minutes walk we started to hear some voices and up one last hill were two pools of water each about the size of a large hot tub.  There were 4 people in one and 5 in the other; I don't like getting into a hot tub immediately after some one let alone when there are people in them, so right away I wasn't feeling it.  But we took off our shoes and got our towels out of the backpack and dipped a toe in.  The water was slightly warmer than the air which was close to 80 degrees plus all the rocks in the pools were slimy and/or covered in algae.  I figured I could get used to both of those factors but then I looked around at the people in the hot springs, and every single person there made me feel uncomfortable.  They were having a bit too much fun or too relaxed or too washing their hair, yep a girl was washing her hair.  It was all around awkward so I told Megan that I wasn't feeling the hot springs so we jumped out, grabbed our stuff and left.  I wouldn't even let Megan dry off and put clothes on.  Nope she was walking away from this place shoes and bathing suit, no time to put on shorts or a shirt.


We stopped a minute or so down the trail, a safe enough distance to start talking about the weirdos in the hot springs, to thoroughly dry off and put our clothes on.  Luckily, we made it back to the car alive.  We thought the hot springs would have been much more fun with a larger group so you could dominate the pool and also if the weather was chilly to make the contrast between air and water refreshing instead of a lukewarm bath tub feel.

We hit the road driving towards Northwest New Mexico, home of ... well nothing.  But we had plans to swoop by the most arbitrary monument in the United States and maybe the world! Four Corners!  Where Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona all meet and you can stand in one spot and be in 4 different states.  Don't get too excited, we had a long drive ahead of us.

We were using the maps on our phones to take us towards the four corners because really there aren't any highways in this part of the US.  Our phones kept telling us to take NM State Hwy 126 which meets up with 550 and that will take us to Farmington, Shiprock (which I heard was a really cool "end of the Earth" type place), and the Four Corners.  You know there is going to be a lot of exciting stuff to see when places are described as Post Apocalyptic.

We started down Hwy 126 and it was a normal one lane road with the big double yellow line in between lanes.  Then the double line turned into the single dash, ok we can legally pass now except the road also got significantly more narrow.  A few more miles and we came to some construction, there was no sign for it or road closure and as we pulled up to it a guy waved us to drive on through.  So we skirted passed the construction equipment on the dirt and gravel road.  It wasn't more than a few hundred yards and we were past the construction but the road never came back. It was just dirt.  The lack of road continued for 15 miles and this wasn't a straight, flat 15 mile drive; we were going up and down hills, hairpin turns, swooping S curves all on what essentially was a sand road.  Multiple times on turns, the wheels dug in the sand and my heart sank with the car until we jolted out of the ruts and lunged forward again.

We finally made it back to real roads and celebrated that we didn't get stuck in back woods New Mexico for the next 10 days.  Looking back, had we known we weren't going to get stuck the scenery probably was pretty impressive.  They should think about building a road through it.

We started back down the other side of Hwy 126 and not more than 5 miles after our sand road we came across a serious traffic jam, well we dubbed it a New Mexico Traffic Jam.  

New Mexico Traffic Jam

 After the cattle drive down the middle of the road, we didn't see much for the next couple hours.  Not the "we didn't see much other than the normal McDonalds, Taco Bell, Wendy's, and gas stations."  We didn't see much of anything, trees, water, animals, cars, just not a whole lot out there.  When we did see something it was awesome!  Shiprock which is aptly named because it is a giant rock formation that could easily be confused with a ship had we been closer than 700 miles to nearest ocean.

Shiprock

Another of Shiprock

We stopped on the side of the road to take a few pictures but there was a fence around the entire Shiprock and at this point we were easily deterred by a measly fence so we continued towards the four corners.  We were only a few miles away now and got there by late afternoon.  The Four Corners was amaz...nope I can't do it.  It was lame and depressing.  I wouldn't have missed it because when you are within like 120 miles of it there isn't a whole lot else to see and we needed to break up the day with some stops but it wasn't very cool.  Some Native American groups have built some buildings surrounding the marker and they sell artifacts and nick-knacks from the stalls.

Most Arbitrary "Monument" in the US

We stood on the marker and got some pictures while being in 4 states at once and left to make it to Cortez, Colorado and Mesa Verde National Park, where we had just found a campsite.  It Cortez we choose Burger Boy Drive-In for dinner which we thought would be fast to feed our growling stomachs.  It was fast and delicious and after snarfing down the burgers and fries we were feeling upbeat and decided to try out Main Street Brewery just down the block.

Scenery Near Four Corners

We sampled a few beers and started asking each other the Trivial Pursuit questions they had sitting out on the bar.  Megan remembers this as when she dominated Trivial Pursuit and on one card got all the answers right.  Nothing could top that for her so we drove the last few miles to Mesa Verde just after dusk and we were treated to some amazing views of the Green Table as we made our way to our camp.  Luckily we were skilled at setting up camp because completing this task in the dark was not easy but we were able to do it rather quickly.

Moon, Shooting Star, Mesa Verde