Road Trip Day 4 - Desert Drive

A gorgeous day for travel, but certainly hot! US highway 160 goes straight through southern Colorado and on into Arizona. Our route took us through the Four Corners, the only place in the US where four states meet at one spot! Here is a recap of our day:

• From our KOA Campground in Cortez we drove into town and stopped at the visitor center, then went across the street to a neat shop to use their computer.
  
• Around 10 am we headed down 160 to Four Corners. This was out in the middle of nowhere. There was a little platform for the photographer to take the picture, while the others of the party could pose on the huge plaque/platform where the exact spot is. There wasn't much of a crowd. There were loads of Native Americans, mostly Navajo I think, selling various goods such as jewelry, indian fry bread, blankets and such. I stayed away from the booths as I am on a very tight budget for this road trip.
  
• We passed into Arizona afterwards. Most of the driving on Hwy 160 took us through the Navajo Indian Reservation. The highway continued in a west-south-west direction through the town of Kayenta where we stopped and made a sandwich, and had a pit stop. We continued through this desert, made our way to ELEPHANT FEET.
  
  From http://www.explorenavajo.com/attractions.asp "Plenty of vehicles stop on the side of the road near the pair of lonely sandstone towers jutting out from the flatlands east of Navajo Nation. To everyone who sees these formations, they look exactly like their name: Elephant Feet. There is no visitor center, but that's part of the beauty of these pachyderm formations — you can walk right up and touch the "toes" of these rocks. "
  
  Continued our drive which took us through Tuba City. We were trying to find Dinosaur Tracks, but never saw a sign, so we just skipped it and headed north on highway 89. We split off onto 89A and headed to Marble Canyon with a gorgeous view of the Vermillion Cliffs on our left. The Navajo Bridge at Marble Canyon spans the Colorado River. It was a great sight to see! The visitor center told all about the Historic Bridge and the newly constructed bridge (1990s). The people who signed the visitor register right before we did were from Finland. Their comment? "TOO HOT!" That was funny. But it was HOT for sure. Oh, we had a stowaway that we picked up at Four Corners, a fly, which Steve named "McFly" (think Back to the Future). Anyway, he bailed on us at the Navajo Bridge. Guess he found his new digs.
  
• After crossing the river we continued in a west direction through desert and eventually crossed into the Kaibab National Forest. As we climbed in elevation we encountered a few sprinkles and the higher we got the more living things we saw. The highway was a twisting road up to the top of the Kaibab Plateau, elevation about 8800 feet. In the desert we were at 5000-6000. We found our way to Jacobs Lake. We thought it was a town but really they just have a gas station and a lodge.
  
• We headed south on highway 67, the only road to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Our campground was just a quarter of a mile down, so we settled in for the night. There was a bit of thunder and lightening but not directly over us. However, with each wind gust the pine trees lost a few of their nuts, so it was raining pine nuts! We had our first campfire. All the rain had allowed the campground to lift the fire ban. I showed Steve the right way to sliver wood with an ax and hammer so as to be able to get a fire going. Worked well. We toasted some marshmallows. We had a nice night for sleeping. Our tent site was right by a lovely horse pasture with a pond. (the lake in Jacobs Lake). Zzzzzz.