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1997 West Vacation -- September 13 through September 27, Part 2
Index
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| My 1997 West Vacation. 14 days, 5440 miles. |
We have some sand dunes on the Eastern shore of Lake Michigan, but nothing like these. Sand is carried on the prevailing winds over the San Luis valley, but is too heavy to get over the Sangre de Cristo mountains. So the sand settles out, and over 15,000 years has covered 39 square miles and formed sand dunes over 750 feet high. (That's a 75 story building for you city-folk... :-)) This place is also famous with the super-natural crowd, it's widely reported that this place is haunted. I didn't bother to stick around to find out.
Great Sand Dunes National Monument
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Just past the continental divide, there's an overlook that looks down a thousand foot drop-off into the valley below. It's an unexpected treat.
US-160, near Continental Divide
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Durango, CO
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Mesa Verde National Park was an interesting experience. While most other National Parks are based on some amazing geologic area, Mesa Verde is about the Anasasi, a 1000 year old civilization that vanished without a trace. A few of the cliff dwellings in this park are open to the public, but many involve ladders and small crawl spaces.
In seeming inhospitable places, sometimes a hundred feet above the valley floor, are stone dwellings built for unknown reasons. Drought? War? Famine? Disease? Just more mysteries lost in the fabric of time...
Mesa Verde National Park
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Once US-160 turns south, you enter the Ute Mountain Indian Reservation. Once you pass the Four Corners, you're in the Navajo Indian Reservation.
Four Corners, is the only place in the US where four states meet. Not a Big Deal you say? Well, you're right. But that doesn't stop thousands of people from paying a couple of bucks to get their picture taken on that one spot...
In 2008, I found myself 5 miles from the Monument, and stopped in to get some better pictures. Back in 1997, it was all film, and you conserved it on long trips. Now, it's all digital, and you just take pictures of everything!
The Navaho Indian Reservation is a large place, and you're in it until you get to Grand Canyon National Park. There are random, fascinating rock formations that jut of from the ground throughout the journey. We stopped in a gas station/convenience store somewhere along the way, which had no phone (at least in 1997.)
Four Corners / Navajo Reservation
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End 1997 West Vacation Part 2
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