A day in ruins

I am still a bit astonished that camping people are not early risers.  We always seem to be the only people awake in the campgrounds as we pack up our tent.  Tuesday morning in Bonito Campground was no different.  Cassie and I woke up early, packed up our campsite and headed north.  First stop -- Wupatki National Monument.

These Indian ruins are from the 1100's.

Here's Cassie practicing her layup in the ball court.

85-100 people lived here in this pueblo. We were here too early in the morning to enjoy the visitor's center, but were able to walk around the grounds and peek into the ancient rooms.  Cassie was fascinated by the blow hole. 

From Wupatki we continued driving north.  A side note about US-89 and US-160:  the views are pretty amazing and will have you singing "Welcome to Radiator Springs" in your head.  You will have a difficult time finding any places to pull over to enjoy the views.  No rest areas, and no scenic overlooks.

Navajo National Monument offers some amazing views.  A short walk from the visitor center allows views of cliff dwellings.  100 rooms built into the rock wall over 700 years ago are still standing today.

We did not attempt to crawl into this tiny sweathouse.

View of the cliff dwellings.

Cassie and her twin photo-bombing my panoramic photo.

Outside of Tuba City there were some hand-painted signs advertising Dinosaur Tracks!  Free parking!  We were curious and made the turn, but it was a bit sketchy and there were a number of handmade jewelry and blanket stands between the parking area and the "dinosaur tracks."  We stayed in the car and kept going.  Here, though, at Navajo National Monument, was a legitimate dinosaur footprint.

Next stop:  Four Corners National Monument! (Actually, the next stop was a little side road off of US-160 where I pulled over to stretch my legs and eat a salad bought at the Tuba City Basha's store.  As I mentioned, there are no rest areas or scenic overlooks along this road.  It was very windy.  Bits of my salad blew off of my fork and flew away.)

And then, Four Corners.  Admission is $5 per person, and the monument is surrounded by market stalls.  We did not buy any jewelry.

Here we are, standing in four states at once.  You can't tell from this photo, but there was crazy wind right there.  Sand and RAIN blowing at us.  It did clear out the rest of the people so we didn't have to wait long for our turn to take pictures.  

The rain started at Four Corners and did not stop the rest of the day.  We drove into Colorado through gusts of wind and pouring rain and saw lots of lightening.  At one point the rain was so dense I just pulled into the parking lot of a trading post and waited it for it to let up a bit.  

We stopped for the evening in Durango.  Asked Siri where we could find the best burger, and she recommended the Diamond Belle Saloon in the historic Strater Hotel.  Siri was right.  The burgers were delicious.  The Saloon was fun, with waitresses dressed like saloon girls and live music.

Because of the rain, thunder and lightening we chose not to camp on Tuesday.  The wifi at the Travelodge is slow, but we were able to recharge all of our batteries and update the blogs.

We've decided to head towards Denver next.  It wasn't on our list, but we're just not feeling New Mexico.