The Four Corners Story
The Caravan Chronicles is coming out in two weeks and since I need another story posted here before the end of the day I thought I’d give you a sneak peek.
The book tells the tale about myself and three friends who did all 48 US states (and DC) in two weeks, all by car. The list of amazing things we saw is too long to list, but there was one spot we had on our list that we missed.
Here is a snippet from the book that tells the story of how missing one spot gave us one of the best memories of the trip.
By the time we left the Grand Canyon, our next hopeful stop was supposed to be the infamous “Four Corners” monument. This spot is where Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico all meet in one specific geographic location. It’s a well-known landmark where you can actually stand in a spot and be in all four states at the same time. We needed to push as hard as we could to get there as we didn’t know if the actual monument could be reached during off-hours, and we knew it would likely be night time when we got there.
On our journey to the corners, we passed by Marble Canyon, where the Navajo Bridge is located. This bridge is a nice walking bridge that takes you from one side of the Colorado River to the other. Again, this was another great spot to visit, and we were only passing through, so we parked the car, wandered around, took some photographs, bought some swag from the locals, and then continued on our way.
Unfortunately, the highway we were on was a secondary highway that weaved in and out of the surrounding terrain. As lovely as it was to see the view and watch the sun go down from the road, it was taking a toll on our time to get to our destination for that night. There were entire stretches where we had the van well above the speed limit, hoping to gain some extra mileage, but then we’d come by a crazy turn and realize we needed to slow down. By the time we got to the actual four corners, we had come to find out it was closed and blocked off by fences and gates with no way to get in to see the real monument. Of all the spots we had wanted to see, this was the only one on our list that we didn’t catch on our trip. It did, however, provide an unexpected opportunity to observe something we hadn’t seen yet.
If you can, punch in this destination into Google Maps and bring up the Street View: 36° 59.599’N 109° 2.459’W. These coordinates take you to the actual entrance to the Four Corners Monument. In Street View, you can actually see the sign for the entry. When you look at that spot from Street View, you can clearly see that there’s absolutely nothing around. It literally is in the middle of nowhere with no real buildings, no street lights, and nothing to be seen anywhere. Now, imagine what this place would have looked like at night.
When we arrived here, it was a little after 10:00 pm local time, and there was no way of getting inside. We paused for a moment and then took a look up at the sky. In the middle of the New Mexico desert, with no light pollution from anywhere, you could see every single star in the night time sky. All four of us got real silent for a moment as we realized how incredibly beautiful the heavens were, and how quiet it was all around us. With the van turned off, and us mesmerized, I took a few steps away, sat down on the gravel, and then laid flat out looking straight up.
I had seen the stars plenty of times back home while out for a drive at night. But never in all my life had I seen the sky like this. It made me realize that I really should invest in getting some glasses to perceive distances a bit better, but despite that, I just laid there for a few minutes taking in the moment. From this point onward, we had nowhere we had to be or get to, it was now merely just pushing onward towards our next major city, and we wouldn’t be getting anywhere near that until the following day anyway so why not just soak up everything there was to see in the sky even if it was just for a moment. We all knew that we would have to get back on the road again, but much like the amazement of the trees in California, the stars took our breath away for a few moments before we had to point the car south to Albuquerque.
The Caravan Chronicles comes out on February 16th. Click the link to learn where you can purchase your copy.