Day 38 – Dolores to Four Corners to Blanding, UT

Today, we had a change of plans. While this trip is mostly about riding, it’s also about seeing the country. And one of our party had a pretty specific request. In particular, Bobby. Since he was 5 and learned about the Four Corners where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona come together, he’s wanted to stand at that spot. He’d ask questions about it, he’d look at it online, and ask even more questions about it. His bucket list clearly included the Four Corners.

Originally the plan had been to hit it on the way back, so this wasn’t on our minds when we came into the area. Then late last night we realized we were within 40 miles of Four Corners and as much as Heidi could have taken the boys there while JP and I rode with support from Art… what fun would that be. So we made the decision to hit it first before jumping on the bikes today.

We left about 7:30 and rolled in about an hour later.

The Navajo have done quite a bit of development at the park, including 4 rows of vendor stalls (one in each state) flanking the spot. However the USGS disk is still there and you can still stand right in the middle of it.

I think this is our first real family photo of the trip. We need the Microsoft “to the cloud!” thing tho… if you look carefully, Dax is doing something with his nose.

And here’s Art and JP. You can’t tell they’re related, can you?

Bobby was definitely stoked to have made the trip. Even tho it cut in to the day’s ride, it was awesome that he (and all of us) could make this side trip. Plus he got another sticker to add to his growing laptop sticker collection.

On the way out of the park we saw a dog in the brush on the side of the road. I tried to convince Heidi that it was a wild dog, so she took a picture of the “wildlife” to add to our collection.

On this trip we’ve passed a lot of mesas. Below is Red Mesa. We’ve also passed Blue Mesa and White Mesa. I’d really like to get to Black Mesa at some point so I can meet Dr. Freeman and buy a plush head crab. (Editor’s note: This is a reference to the video game Halflife. Yeah…I had to ask.)

We rode in to Utah from the south today rather than the east. We had a very nice ride through valleys of mesas, cactuses, and wild horses.

A wild oil pump appears! Well, not that wild, but it is freaking huge. There’s a lot of crude coming out of the ground around here.

After the ride we stopped at the Edge of the Cedars State Park here in Blanding. They had some really interesting Pueblo artifacts and this dwelling they had uncovered. I knew next to nothing about the Pueblo culture before today, but found the visit very interesting.

Tomorrow we’ve got some climbing and we’ve got some driving. It’s an odd day. I’ll talk about it tomorrow. Too tired tonight. Sleepy time.