Today felt like a vintage Knott family road trip day. We woke up early and hit the road for a 6 hour drive.
The first stop was the Four Corners Monument, the intersection of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. For all the time we’ve spent in those four states, we’ve always intentionally skipped this. We were under the impression it is underwhelming, fairly pricy, and overcrowded. Considering it’s less than an hour from Mancos, and we were literally driving right by it, it was the day to stop.
We arrived as they were opening for the day and were the second group to snap our pics in all four states. Ellie commented that if all states were squares, this would not be all that special.
Three of the four corners are actually on the Navajo Nation and the Colorado portion is Ute Mountain Ute land. Each side is surrounded by Indigenous artisans who were just setting up their booths for the day. Some of the beadwork we saw was just so beautiful.
I’m glad we made the stop and crossed that off our “things to do in the area” list.
The next five hours were spent driving through a bit of New Mexico, a chunk of Arizona, and a bunch of Utah to get to our destination of Bryce Canyon National Park. We are here for two nights and have an adorable cabin right on the rim. We took a late afternoon walk along the rim to Sunrise Point, recreating a photo of Zoe on her first visit here when she was only four!
The lodge isn’t open for dinner, other than buffet, so we drove to the small town of Tropic to get dinner. We’ve been here a few other times over the years, and, like always, we got in trouble for ordering too much beer and not enough food. Utah liquor laws suck. We eventually ordered enough food to please our server’s expectation of food/beer ratio. I’m tempted to order a second pitcher, but I’m pretty sure that has never been done here and I’d be sent right to the sheriff.
Tomorrow…a BIG hike!
