There is nothing better to wake you up than starting the day with heart stopping fireworks and a bang in your hotel room. One of the forgotten items we picked up in Albuquerque was my straitening iron. I plugged in the new one and sparks started flying out of the top and that was followed by a bang. Shane and I are still in shock that I wasn’t hurt by it. Needless to say this one is getting returned and next time I’ll be purchasing a different brand.

There were really no plans for today, we just wanted to see some interesting things and make it to Bluff in time for dinner. We started out backtracking 15 miles to Aztec, NM to visit the Aztec Ruins. We decided to see this on a whim and were very happy we did. The tour of the ruins is self guided and took us just over an hour. The architecture is amazing and I find it amazing that parts of these buildings are still standing over 800 years after they were built.

After leaving the Aztec Ruins we headed West to four corners. I love it that we were able to drive an hour out of the way to stand in four states at once just because we wanted to. After days of hardly seeing any tourists we found all of them in one spot. Apparently four corners is a very popular place and was flooded with tourists, most of them German. Four corners also has some Navajo  Indians selling jewelry, pottery and t-shirts. We picked up Shane an arrow head made of flint, Georgie and Ethan two little turtle necklaces and Georgie a turquoise necklace.

We started heading North into Colorado and stopped for lunch in Cortez. It was a beautiful little town with great views of the mountains. Shane took over driving duties and we headed to Hovenweep National Monument. It was boiling hot but we managed to do the two mile hike down into the canyon and back up to see all of the cliff dwellings. It was a steep 80 foot drop into the canyon and an immediate 80 foot hike back up. Once again we were in awe of how these buildings were constructed. They were perched on tiny little ledges high above the canyon floor.

After the walk we jumped in the Jeep and headed on to Bluff Utah; our stop for the night. We love our GPS, its a Magellan Crossover and it directs us in the most interesting routes. Today it gave us a short cut through a field and down a dirt road. The word for the day was "wow", the scenery was amazing and we loved every second of the day.

After arriving in Bluff we checked out the town. it took all of three minutes. It is a beautiful little town surrounded by bluffs, go figure. We ate dinner at the Cottonwood Steakhouse which was OK. I think our waitress was ready for tourist season to be over, she was not a happy person. The food was good but thanks to the mozzies that were attacking us we took our dessert to go. It was a really fun day and the alarm is set for 4:30am tomorrow.

Almost forgot, tonight’s accommodation was at the Rosewood Inn. It is a big beautiful log building and has gorgeous log beds. We had a room on the back side of the building with a beautiful view of the bluff.

Aztec Ruins – unfortunate that we had bad light for photos

View near the New Mexico/Arizona border

On the way to Cortez

Between Cortez and Hovenweep

Cliff top dwelling at Hovenweep

The road less traveled

Sunset/moon rising at Bluff Utah

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