CONMAZUT

We were invited to another wedding this year, this time in St. George, UT. Originally Heather was planning to attend alone, but as it became clearer in the winter that Dave would have extra time, we decided to enlist Grandma Joan's help for an extraneous drive through the Four Corners and the Grand Canyon.

Going into it, we thought that the scenery would be as brown as this topographical map, but boy were we mistaken

The itinerary going out necessitated a 41 minute connection in DFW. After blowing off steam at the kidport in Boston, and with 50,000 calories of snacks in tow, we made the tight connection without a problem

Flying into Durango, CO, and view of the San Juan mountains

First and only bison that we encountered

First stop in our tour of ancestral Puebloan NP sites: Canyons of the Ancients

The "Canyons of the Ancients" were a dusty 25 miles away, but the visitor center was great and super kid-friendly. Erin practiced grinding blue corn using a stone mano and metate while Tessie tried on a traditional Hopi low-riding diaper.

The next day was planned to be a long drive with an ambitious number of stops at National Park sites. Fortunately, we were all up at 5:30 due to our East Coast body clocks and made it to our first site in the early morning
 

Colorado picture 

Now you may have learned that the Anasazi built Mesa Verde, but today we call them ancestral puebloans. Apparently Anasazi is a Navajo word that can mean "ancient enemies" and is offensive to the present-day Hopi, Zuni, and Paiutes. Caroline and Erin think that ancestral puebloans is too much of a mouthful, but with the alternatives being hisatsinom (Hopi) and E'nengweng (Paiute), what are you going to do? Answer: install a giant bronze sculpture of an ancestral puebloan in the visitor center

Title of the sculpture is "The Ancient Ones"

There was even a little toddler play area


The drive up the mesa was spectacular

The girls reached a new high altitude benchmark

To see Spruce Tree House up close required a small gulley traverse and instead we stayed above it

We had hoped to only put a finger into the state of New Mexico, but turns out that the road through the Four Corners enters from the NM side. PS - don't you love those hot peppers on the state sign?

You either love or hate the Four Corners but we thought it was pretty cool

Erin missed the photo op, but here is proof of her feet officially in NM

Mom got the best pic

We bought our postcard from the tchotchke stalls as well as 2 possibly handmade Navajo dreamcatchers

 Done with the Four Corners

Hello Arizona. No offense, but you should allocate some funds to upgrade your state signage. New Mexico has those jazzy hot peppers and wait until you see Utah and Nevada...

There's a new contributor of photos to the blog: Caroline using the iPad. She took some winners

 and some that were more personalized


Navajo National Monument had a model of a puebloan dwelling


and the girls landed another Junior Ranger badge

Recognize those blocks? That's how they get you: play with them for free at one park and then cough up the cash at the next park to save the crying toddler

Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell. Our trip coincided with a New Yorker article on the disappearing Colorado River, but even with the lost volume it is impressive


It's hard to see it, but Lake Powell is over 180 miles long and apparently has more coastline than the entire western US.


Brave souls walked out on the bridge but we did not

One wonders how those trucks made it to the bottom of the dam

Oooh, to dream: Jr ranger badges at the Glen Canyon NRA visitor center

 Now that's a cool sign

and equally cool were the real dinosaur footprints at the Grand Staircase Escalante NM visitor center

A young hadrosaur and a young chordate

 Misson accomplished for day one: smiles all around