Highway 160 - leaving Arizona and heading toward Cortez, Colorado

So, now you know that the southern part of the Grand Canyon DID NOT appeal to either of us. In fact, we didn't like it so much that we left a day early. Christy didn't like the drive down from north Grand Canyon, but I did. I think she would have liked it more if she had been driving. Ever since that drive, I have been trying to let her drive WAY more so she's not so bored. If you've known me long, you know I'm not much of a conversationalist. And if you've known me as long as Chris has, you might regret having to sit silently with me for more than 5 minutes.

We left the Canyon in an easterly direction, and drove on Highway 160. In general, the trek on 160 from the Grand Canyon all the way up to the four corners, pretty much... SUCKS. That includes Tuba City. A town that I don't consider one of my top, most enjoyable cities of all times.

There is not a whole lot to see other than dry, flat, parched land with little in the way of viewpoints. There are 2 exceptions, and I might be stretching it a bit by calling them views.

First was this amazingly large grain elevator looking structure. Apparently they must move oil in this thing though, and not grain, because the road signs all tell you to watch for oil and water on the roadway.

That huge pipe crosses over the highway and runs up the mountain on the other side, delivering what can only be considered some of kind of priceless cargo. You can't tell it from the picture, but that thing is a monstrous silo - or at least it appears huge because it's the only thing you'll see along the road for about 50 miles.


Secondly, there's a town called Kayente. In all actuality, it's probably not much better than Tuba City, but they've definitely tried to modernize and update, and bring themselves into the modern world. Unfortunately, once you kind of see behind the wonderfully clean surface of the town, everything takes on the dirty, dusty feel of what Tuba City was to me.

Actually, the sites in this town are nice, but they are actually part of Monument Valley. In other words... to really see them you will have to leave Kayente. Making it a necessary, and maybe worthwhile stop. But also - NOT - on my favorite places to visit list.

Anyways, a few hours later we pulled up to the ever-so-impressive Four Corners monument.


I'll end it with this...
the National Parks have this little book you can buy - called a Blue Book. What it is... is a book you can stamp at each park or momument you visit. Each 'visitor's center' has a stamp that you can stamp in your Blue Book. There are sections, like Southwest and Northwest, in this book. After visiting Yellowstone we decided this was kind of a cool way to remember each place we had visited. We've been eagerly stamping all of the stops along the way after missing everything in Yellowstone. So, we walked over to the visitors center at the Four Corners stop to find that the door is closed and locked.

And guess what they have posted on the door?

Any ideas?

Nothing?


Here's what is posted on the Four Corners visitors center door...


CONDEMNED! Yep. Pretty impressive, huh? Oh, well, at least someone's making money from it.

Al