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Today we headed south to the oldest of the National Monuments, Natural Bridges Natural Monument. This was an easy tour, driving the park's loop road and looking out over the stone bridges in the canyons. We learned the difference between "natural bridges" and "arches" (bridges are formed by flowing water eroding rock at curves in the sandstone canyons, while arches are formed by water seepage and freezing within the sandstone).
We then continued a bit further to the rather obscure Hovenweep National Monument, which include yet some more ancestral puebloan ruins (it seems that you can hardly throw a rock around this region without hitting some evidence of the ancestral puebloans. Here we learned a little bit more about the history and lives of the older cultures, but we decided not to hike very much of the trail around the small canyon because of the heat.
After finishing at Hovenweep, we headed southeast, towards a point that is unique in US geography. There is only one spot in the US where four states come together. Those states are Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. The point where these states meet is on the Navajo Indian reservation, and the Navajo have set up a monument on the state lines. We posed for some pictures, each standing in a different state. As we left, we circled the parking lot around the monument, thus driving through four states in about a minute!
We are now back in New Mexico, spending the night before heading west in the Arizona for our last stops before our journey takes us back to the north.
We then continued a bit further to the rather obscure Hovenweep National Monument, which include yet some more ancestral puebloan ruins (it seems that you can hardly throw a rock around this region without hitting some evidence of the ancestral puebloans. Here we learned a little bit more about the history and lives of the older cultures, but we decided not to hike very much of the trail around the small canyon because of the heat.
After finishing at Hovenweep, we headed southeast, towards a point that is unique in US geography. There is only one spot in the US where four states come together. Those states are Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. The point where these states meet is on the Navajo Indian reservation, and the Navajo have set up a monument on the state lines. We posed for some pictures, each standing in a different state. As we left, we circled the parking lot around the monument, thus driving through four states in about a minute!
We are now back in New Mexico, spending the night before heading west in the Arizona for our last stops before our journey takes us back to the north.
