4 Corners Trip (USA)

by Gary Wilson

Day 2 - April 6th 2007

The German sergeant was yelling “get up, get up!” and I replied, “nein, nein let me sleep till nine”!

How much easier it is to get up in the morning when you know southern Utah is waiting to be ridden. I crawled out of my tent to find Olav already up and about; I made my coffee and gazed around looking at the morning light. We were both anxious to get going so we broke camp and started on our second day, first day together.

Just across the road from the campground was the entrance to Mesa Verde; it offers a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people who made it their home for over 700 years, from A.D. 600 to A.D. 1300. Today, the park protects over 4,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings. These sites are some of the most notable and best preserved in the United States. The road through the park was very quite this day, very little traffic. Olav and I stopped at many of the vista points were we could see the ancient dwellings, it reminded me of primitive town homes built below massive rock ledges.

After our loop through the park we headed back into the town of Cortez for breakfast at Denney’s. With full stomachs and gas tanks we headed south on US160 to the town of TeecNosPos The Navajo name of this community translates as "Cottonwoods in a Circle". Passing on our right was the entrance to 4 corners monument. This is the only point in the United States where four states touch. The original marker erected in 1912 was a simple cement pad, but has since been redone in granite and brass. The Visitor Center is open year round, and features a Demonstration Center with Navajo artisans. Navajo vendors sell handmade jewelry, crafts and traditional Navajo foods, but mostly tacky t-shirts stands now.

At Keyenta Arizona we headed north on highway US163, our main destination of the day was Monument Valley, and for me to find the location of the cover photograph of “The Ghost Rider” by Neil Peart, and ride around the landscape that overwhelms you, not just by its beauty but also by its size. The fragile pinnacles of rock are surrounded by miles of mesas and buttes, shrubs, trees and windblown sand, all comprising the magnificent colors of the valley. All of this harmoniously combines to make Monument Valley a truly wondrous experience. For hundreds of millions of years, materials that eroded from the early Rock Mountains deposited layer upon layer of sediments, which cemented a slow and gentle uplift generated by ceaseless pressure from below the surface, elevating these horizontal strata quite uniformly one to three miles above sea level. What was once a basin became a plateau. Natural forces of wind and water that eroded the land spent the last 50 million years cutting in to and peeling away at the surface of the plateau. The simple wearing down of altering layers of soft and hard rock slowly revealed the natural wonders of Monument Valley today. From the visitor center, you see the world-famous panorama of the Mitten buttes and Merrick Butte. After riding the loop road through the valley we continued north to the town of Mexican Hat, named by one of it’s stranger looking rock formation just outside of town, appearing to be a upside down sombrero hat.

A few miles further up the road we steered west on US 261 passing the Valley of the God’s Road, (I had planned too much to see on this trip and we were running short on time so we had to cut out this side trip, but worth the time when you have it). Just pass the valley of the god’s road came the switchbacks! A narrow gravel road that takes you up to one of the most scenic overlooks in the state, but not for the meek on two wheels.

It was now getting later in the day and time to start thinking about where to camp for the night. The one thing I’ve never done in 35 years of motorcycle touring is to camp on the side of the road. The scenery we were in just made it just too tempting not to. My GPS show a dirt road coming up ahead. Leaving the highway we followed the road and found a very quite and scenic spot next to a giant dry wash that carved its way through the desert landscape. The weather that night was clear and warm. Olav and I started to gather wood for the fire. I decided not to put up my tent but just sleep on a tarp and air mattress under a darkening blue sky with millions of brightening stars. Once again dinner for me consisted of another pack of “Just add hot water” meals, but Olav was a little more gourmet this night cooking spaghetti, I think it was? How quite it became, only one or two cars passed down the highway all night. And once again I found myself turning in way too early.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Rider:_Travels_on_the_Healing_Road