Today's the day that we return to the motherland - or, at least, the land of my mother? We're heading from New Mexico to Arizona, by way of Colorado!
Our first stop of the day was at Mesa Verde National Park, in Colorado. We had to drive a ways to get here, and it added some decent additional time to our drive time for the day, but I'd say it was worth it. We drove to the Visitor's Center and outside the building was a tall steel sculpture called The Ancient Ones, dedicated to the Pueblo people from centuries past. We talked to the park ranger at the desk about our desired destination - The Top Loop - and we learned the exciting news that, while the loop itself is only 30 or 45 minutes, it's an hour drive each way to and from the top loop. We definitely did NOT have time for this, but we were committed. If we left NOW (and didn't stop at all along the way), we should still be able to do the whole route and make it to Four Corners just before it closed.
I drove up, down, and through the park (including a pretty decently long tunnel!) to get to the top loop. I didn't do a great job following the speed limit, making it up to the Top Loop in about 30 minutes in an attempt to buy us a little more time. We stopped at a few places and got out to admire some of the ancient dwellings like pit houses, the Sun Temple, and even a gorgeous view across the canyon to the Sun Palace, a multi-story Pueblo building dating back to around 1200 CE. For the trip back down the mountain, we were stuck doing the speed limit due to traffic in front of us, but thanks to the trip up we should be fine. Plus, thanks to Arizona's refusal to participate in daylight savings time, we should gain an extra hour, right?
WRONG. While, Four Corners gets its namesake from where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah meet, its address is technically listed as in Arizona. However, it is firmly inside the Navajo Nation which reaches into New Mexico and Utah, so they're currently Mountain Daylight Time (which means we did NOT set our clock back). However, we made it to the monument 30 minutes before they closed, giving us plenty of time to get our pictures taken, romp around in Utah, and pile back into the car for another few hours.
Our final destination for the night was Kayenta, Arizona. We grabbed some Church's Chicken and ate a picnic dinner right outside the hotel. It was super windy and we had to all hold our plates down to keep them from blowing away; luckily, only one plate blew away, and we only lost a little bit of "Z"'s salad. Tension was high again in the room, and people were definitely not on their best behavior. We all survived, though, and eventually turned in for bed.