Four Corners - Intersection of AZ, UT, CO & NM - General area for visiting Canyon De Chelly and Mesa Verde
We used Gallup NM to leave the RV to tour Canyon De Chelly in the Toyota. Wow Canyon De Chelly lived up to expectations and exceeded them. This whole area for many miles is multiple indian reservations. Lots of open land and every so often wild horses. Way more horses than cattle. That is different from Bureau of Land Management (BLM) property which rounds up wild horses to allow cattle to graze. The Cattle Owners association lobby drives BLM policy. Too bad it’s public land and indians know better how to manage it. The Canyon was beautiful. We were so glad we came to see it. The local indians live in the area and farm the land at the bottom of the canyon. This is different from other National Monuments and it added some interest to the Monument. There were also indians selling handicrafts at some of the view points. We bought $56 of painted rocks by an indian artisan.
After Gallup we went up to Kirkland NM to leave the RV to tour Mesa Verde. On the way we again went through indian country. The main scenic point of interest was Shipwreck Pinnacle. Mesa Verde is in lower CO. It is very impressive. I thought it was primarily one big indian ruin but it was way more than that. First it was up on a plateau with mountain peaks and ravines covering a large area. There were dozens of major ruins and lots of scenic wonder. Very impressive!
I have put a lot of pictures on the end of this page but will include another page following with a dozen or so more pictures.
