Colorado - the land of Colors, a cozy state in the middle of the mystic Rockies - its beauty so breathtaking I cannot resist giving way to that innermost desire for writing a blog, to tell everyone what we saw and share with them what we felt and enjoyed, knowing well that I am a complete disaster when it comes to English. The memories,their effect so strong, arent even fading with the passage of time(which I wasted being hesitant in deciding whether I am good enough for a travelogue). Finally even at the risk of being made fun of I hereby succumb to my romanticism.
Long weekend was up the corner and so with it came the innumerous discussions and net searches amongst friends about possible places to visit. The big cities on
East coast were all - been there, done that. So were most of the national parks in and around Arizona. The West was all explored, so we decided to "Go East".
After much debate and discussion, Colorado won as the venue to be crisscrossed during the four days of Christmas long weekend, winning over other names like Texas and New Mexico. We decided for it for no apparent reason, Texas was the forerunner for most of the time, but I think it lost out because we just couldnt find any exciting spots there. I guess there is nothing to visit in Texas, but "Texas".
Day 1-
So there it was finally - a long weekend in America(I dont know why but I love this term more than "US" although it sounds old fashioned). And there are hardly 3 or 4 in a year, just 3 to 4 chances of visting places out of Arizona without wasting a leave (a precious resource preserved for India visits). While we were supposed to leave at 11 am, after last minute hurries (as usual I was the culprit) it was only at about 3 pm that we left Chandler for Colorado.
Travelling along the all familiar I-17 (most of the AZ spots are on this way - Sedona, Flagstaff, GrandCanyon, Page et al) but finally going beyond our then final frontiers and entering unknown territory. Our first and only spot on the very first day of our trip was supposed to be Four Corners Monument, but my diligence in finsihing my work came our way and we reached there at about 10 pm. Since the next day was already reserved for Monument Valley, we decided to give 4corners a skip and hoped to visit it sometime later. Still here's a word for 4 corners- its a unique intersection point of the boundaries of 4 US states - Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. Such a intersection of 4 states can be found in Canada also, but its not much popular, (I guess the Canadians dont give a damn. Anyways its man-made and since the states in US and Canada werent formed out of any provincial historical boundaries, the partitions were simply drawn lines and so with almost all of them being so rectangular, a four corner was bound to result).
We had motel reservation at Kayenta, a small town at the mouth of Monument Valley. Since it was already dark we had no choice but to cool our heels in the motel. Suddenly we discovered that it was snowing outside. That was a first for me under snow fall. We had visited snow mountains earlier but never with snow falling. Sitting in my Mumbai home with typical Indian heat outdoors, I had always envied watching people enjoy snow fall on TV. Finally it was time to stop being jealous :)
After indulging in lots of snow bath and also an half a quarter mile snow marathon(literally thats half of a quarter of a mile), we went to sleep making plans - which even we knew we wont follow - of an early morning start the next day .
The next morning at Kayenta was one of the best that we had woken up to in our entire lives. Just as we came out of our beds the first thing to do was - for a change - not a frenzy for the loo but for a peek outside, for we could well imagine the visual treat that awaited us outdoors. The motel we didnt realise at night was located in a absolute stunner of a place. The snow made the view even more beautiful.
I must accept that the movie Forrest Gump was one reason which prompted me to push for Monument Valley. One scene had a resounding affect on my mind and its just a couple of minutes of sequence BTW. The spot where Forrest stops his 3 year long run is the 13th mile, a spot 13 miles from the Utah Arizona border near Monument Valley. This also happens to be one of the most photographed road on earth. Its this same spot here.
I also remember Forrest saying in the same movie "I couldn't tell where heaven stopped and the earth began". I now know what he meant. This was the address of heaven.
Day 2, 3 and 4- will complete when I get some free time
