Canyon de Chelly and Four Corners

Teressa did the write-up for today: The Holiday Inn Express had a great complimentary breakfast. Around 9, we drove East out of Holbrook to the National Park visitor center for the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest. Live and learn, but we were at the far end of the forest with limited time, so we watched their film and looked at the petrified samples. Consistent with our experience with the National Parks, the film was very informative and worth the stop. The Petrified Forest was created nearly 250 million years ago back in the Triassic era, when this region was an inland sea, and all the continents were together in one large land mass.

Later, in a little town called Chinle, we grabbed a burger at A&W. Just out of Chinle is Canyon De Chelly (De Chay), a national monument. We drove to the end of the park to see Spider Rock, a tremendous spire of red rock rising from the base of the canyon to the top of the canyon walls. Wow! At the base of the canyon a little further down are two separate ancient villages, one above the other. This ruin is called the White House and was built around 1200 AD by early Pueblo ancestors known as the Anasazi, or "ancient ones". The area is one of the longest continually inhabited landscapes in North America, as the canyon was first inhabited nearly 5000 years ago! Due to slick conditions, we did not hike down to the ruins, but it was tempting.

Next stop--Four Corners. Four Corners is a National Monument but is on Navaho land, so they charge you to get in. We arrived after they had closed the tils, and they were kind enough to allow us to enter anyway. We got our photos in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah all at once. OK, it's cheezy, but you have to do it! Brian drove until dark, and Gary drove from Cortez, CO over the icy mountains to Durango. I have wanted to see Durango ever since I saw Oprah go there. After getting settled at the Doubletree Hotel, we drove into downtown Durango and found a local joint for dinner, the Old Timer's Cafe. They had great pork green chili and regular chili. The employees' tshirts read, "we cheat tourists and drunks." We hoped that after our glass of wine they wouldn't consider us both!