Part IV: Four Corners, Four National Parks
I think “four� is a lucky number for this trip. I traveled through four states (New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona), took a loop surrounding the Four Corner Region (where these four states meet), and visited four National Parks in four days. (And interestingly, this is e-mail Part Four.) Since “a picture is better than thousand words�, I would not write too much about my experience visiting these four national parks. Instead, please refer to my homepage for the pictures I took. It is the first time I took ‘digital� pictures and uploaded them on the web directly. I saved a lot of time! 1) Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado Mesa Verde (Green Table in Spanish) is one of the most fascinating national parks in the U.S. It is not most famous for its natural beauty but for it archeological value. There are many ruins of cliff dwellings established by Anasazi Indians in the Park. It is interesting that they chose to build their residence hanging beneath cliffs. Besides several well-preserved archeological sites, the Park also has a small but great museum. By the way, "Mesa" here means flat-topped table mountain. As you can see, they are everywhere in the American Southwest! The Photo album of Mesa Verde National Park. 2) Arches National Park Since my classmate Monts (this is a Catalonian name) visited Utah and showed her pictures in a slide show in our dorm back at Harvard, I've always wanted to visit that national park with a lot of beautiful arches. Who knew that it took me almost 8 years to realize that dream! While it's more than extra 100 miles to drive from Four Corner (where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona meet) to Moab (just outside of Arches NP) and took almost two full days out of our itinerary, it is well worth the trip! I spent extra two hours to walk to the most famous of them all - Delicate Arch, under the stinging sun and almost dehydrated. But again, I have to say, it is worth the trip! The Photo album of Arches National Park. 3) Grand Canyon National Park This might be the most famous national park among all. I have never seen so many Taiwanese tourists in this whole trip until we reached Grand Canyon. It was also the Memorial Day that day, so there were really a lot people. In fact, it is the only place in the Southwest reminding me of New York... Maybe due to its popularity, the park admission is twice as expensive than the other parks we visited (while service in the restaurants is twice as bad). Though this is my third time visiting the Park (I visted here in 1984 and 1992), I was still stunned by its beauty. It is also the first time I had chance to stay in the Park more than 5 hours. Still, we didn't have enough time. We didn't stay until sunset to view the ever-changing colors of the canyon walls. We didn't have time to walk to the valley bottom to touch the water of Colorado River. We didn't have chance to ride donkeys....However, there can always the fourth time, I guess. The Photo album of Grand Canyon National Park. 4) Petrified Forest National Park This is the least famous national park we visited in this trip. In fact, we didn't even know the existence of this park until the day before! It is on the way between Flagstaff and Albuquerque on I-40. We figured that we would pass it by, then why not visiting another parks? It is not very scenic but I think it is very educational. What is "petrified wood/forest"? Go to see it yourself. The Photo album of Petrified Forest National Park. |
