Day 6: Dead Horse Park > Four Corners > Mesa Verde

We woke up from another night of windy conditions. Everything was covered in a thin layer of red dust. I'm no longer referring to it as sand (even though that's what it is). I dislike it so much that it will now, moving forward, only be known as dust. Sand is good. Dust is bad. The previous afternoon's  refreshing dip in the creek  to cleanse the red dust from our bodies was a memory long forgotten after waking up on Monday morning.

Narrow area where the horses were driven through.
Note the wooden "fence" on both sides.

Dead Horse Point is a state park in Utah. My friend Nicole, who lives in Salt Lake City and does a lot of camping/hiking/yoga with her husband, recommended that we add this destination to our itinerary. It just so happened to work out well. It's Utah's Grand Canyon and some would argue even more spectacular as the Colorado River winds its way through the area. The name of park, as legend has it, is due to the cowboys in the 1800's that took advantage of a point in the mesa surrounded by deep drops into the canyon below. The cowboys would drive the feral horses through a narrow neck in the mesa before it expanded into the wide open wedge. Once the horses were in the wedge the cowboys would put up a gate to permanently corral the horses who were surrounded by 1000+ foot cliffs on all sides. Supposedly the cowboys would selecte the strongest and fastest horses to keep. They inexplicably left the other horses to die--hence the name for the park. I shared the story with Adler when he asked how it got its name even though it was a cruel and gruesome story. We walked through the narrow neck at the point where the horses would be trapped so that he could understand how the horses felt. As morbid as the story was there were wonderful views of the canyon with the Colorado winding its way beneath us. This park even had its own "horseshoe" like the one that we'd hiked to in Arizona.

Colorado River Horseshoe at Dead Horse Point

It was time to put all of the grand splendor of the Utah parks behind us and make our way into Colorado for Mesa Verde National Park. We had a stop midway through that trek at the Four Corners Monument which is not a national park but instead on Navajo land. I can imagine that this place is crazy busy during the summer months because only one person/family can take a photo at any given time. However, maybe the Indian gods were feeling guilty for all of the punishment that we endured with the red dust over consecutive days and we walked up to basically a nonexistent line. After waiting three minutes Adler was at the marker ready to take photos:

Utah (top left), Colorado (top right), the rest should be obvious

This trip has consisted of a lot of driving. Adler has spent more time in the car than ever before. How does he cope? Mainly by playing with the iPad. His app of choice is a game called Inventioneers that occupies his mind for  hours on end. As we entered the Mesa Verde National Park a section of road traverses through a mountain tunnel for about 1/4 mile in complete darkness (save for your headlights). As soon as our car entered the tunnel Adler excitedly announced, "I can still see the iPad when it's dark and there aren't even any fingerprints!" Those were his priorities.

At one point along the drive he'd set the iPad down to have a deep philosophical conversation with me. The week before we left on our trip he'd asked Lisa where babies come from but I wasn't present for the conversation. He followed her answer with a question for me, "Dad, who was the first mommy?" His little mind had understood the chicken and egg paradox of needing a mommy to make a baby. I explained the theory of evolution to him and the contrasting idea of immaculate conception. When he pressed me for my beliefs I told him that I leaned towards evolution because if the Bible was true that meant none of the 100 million-year-old rocks and all of the geological wonder we'd marveled at on the trip could have existed because the Bible says the earth is only about six thousand years old. I left him to ponder that thought and eventually he went back to the iPad. 

Mesa Verde as the name implies is a green mesa. After spending time crossing between Utah and Arizona it was a relief to finally get beyond my dust nemesis. This area in Colorado had vegetation on the sides of the mesa that made it appear somewhat lush and hospitable. This also meant more wildlife like black bears! Thankfully we didn't see any.

Mesa Verde the national park ended up being the lowest rated stop on our trip. Sure, it was cool to see ancient structures with some dating back to around 500 AD. But you have to drive 20 miles once you enter the park to get to the first one. And did you stop at the Visitor's Center at the entrance and book your tickets for a tour? If not, you're SOL. I don't think the tour would have been appropriate for Adler but they do take you closer for a firsthand look of the structures. Otherwise you're left taking photos from the viewpoints that are often far away. Around this leg of the trip Adler developed a sense of humor and offered one "goofy" pose for every smile. His levity was keeping the mood just right.

The campsite at Mesa Verde is run by a company independent of the actual government and they had a lot of extra bells and whistles that made the night's camping even better: a full grocery store, individual showers, and even WiFi throughout the grounds. After selecting our site we got the tent setup and then Adler decided that he wanted to pick wild flowers for Lisa. He instructed me to text her the photo with the caption, "I'll see you on Thursday. I really, really miss you." What a sweet and loving kid.

Flowers for Mom!

Adler befriended the boy, Logan, camping next to us with his father. The two of them were on a similar father-son outing that started in Colorado Springs and was headed to the Grand Canyon. Adler and Logan tossed a frisbee around for hours while the dads talked about parenting. Later that night after dinner we shared popcorn and hot chocolate between the families and watched the stars. It was a fitting end to the night.

Today's Miles: 282
Total Miles: 2117