4-5th day

Entering Colorado and Utah

Leaving Socorro we had a stop in Albuquerque a relatively big city with approx 1000000 people together with its metro area. It has a historical old town, which is quite small and not offering else than gift shops and a church.

On the other hand the mall was offering a lot as you can see the trunk of the car.

The result of visiting a mall...

Driving north afterwards through the desert, we left New Mexico and entered Colorado where we stayed in Durango a charming small village in the valley with a lot of nice restaurants and diners. It is a good basis for people coming to ski or to visit some National parks nearby.

Since the skiing season was already over, we were planning to go to Mesa Verde the next day.

Mesa Verde is a World heritage Site and was home to the ancient pueblo people living here between 600-1300. In the late 1190s they began to build the cliff dwellings for which Mesa Verde is famous. The cliff dwellings were built to take advantage of solar energy. The angle of the sun in winter warmed the masonry of the cliff dwellings, warm breezes blew from the valley, and the air was ten to twenty degrees warmer in the canyon alcoves than on the top of the mesa. In the summer, with the sun high overhead, much of the village was protected from direct sunlight in the high cliff dwellings. Around 1300, when an extremely dry period of 30 years occurred, people left the area leaving the dwellings behind.

Pueblo Dwellings

Only an hour to the west we visited the Four Corners Monument, which  marks a quadripoint, where the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah meet. It is the only point in the United States shared by four states. Other than being a unique geographical point in the US, there is nothing else than sand and endless roads.

Four States

 Further on to the west, we arrived in the early afternoon in the Valley of Gods and toured via its 17-mile gravel road, that winds amongst the eerie formations of the valley. At the west exit of the valley, there  is a 1,200-foot ascent up to Cedar Mesa via the so called Moki Dugway.

Entering the Valley of the Gods

By sunset we reached Monument Valley just in time....

The area is part of the Colorado Plateau and the elevation of the valley floor ranges from 5,000 to 6,000 feet  above sea level. As you see it is home to sitting Indian girls and other interesting nature formations.

I also tried to make a hyper-lapse record about the sunset, but by chance the battery of my camera died.

Still I managed to do something....

I do not even have to mention, that it served as set for several movies. See here some of them.

For more pics click here