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June 30, 2006
We arrived at Four Corners and it felt like it was 105 degrees. I am not sure what the actual temperature was, but I bet it was close. You have to pay $3 a person to enter Four Corners and it is a monument where Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah come together. We took the obvious pictures standing on all four states and looked around at all the souvenir shops. It was a fun experience, but overall kind of tacky. Once you have seen it once there is no reason to go back. We spent only 30 minutes there and then headed on to Mesa Verde National Park.
The weather again looked questionable. For the past few days you could see lightening and rain storms in the distance and you were never quite sure how close or which direction they were moving. The sky is so vast out west it is easy to see for miles. We arrived at Mesa Verde around 4 pm and bought tickets at the Vistors Center for the Balcony House Cliff Dwelling tour. I was a little nervous because the tour entailed climbing a 32 foot ladder that hangs over a 550 drop into a canyon as well as multiple closed in, dark, crawl through places. We decided to do it because the kids were dying to do it and the Cliff Palace tours were sold out for the rest of the day. It was a great time to be at the park because they were celebrating their 100 year anniversary. The park was officially opened on June 29, 1906 and they had lots of special activities all weekend to celebrate!
First we visited the museum and the kids worked on the Junior Ranger program and learned about the Indians that inhabited the dwellings 700-800 years earlier. We then headed over to Balcony House. It was an awesome tour with a great Ranger guide! We all climbed the big ladder with no problem (we didn't look down) and made it through the crawling spots. It was amazing to be standing where the ancient Pueblo people lived about 800 years ago. It is even more amazing to think how they got in and out of those alcoves on a daily basis. The kids loved it. After a fun few hours at Mesa Verde we headed toward Durango. We were all exhausted since we started our day at sunrise at the Grand Canyon!
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