Mesa Verde
Pablo’s brother, Jef, lives and works in a coal mine in Farmington, New Mexico and we had to make a trip out of it. Four of us left SLC on a Wednesday night and made the 7 hour drive down to New Mexico. We got to Jef’s house around 2 in the morning and than slept for a few hours before we had to get up for a tour of the mine.
In a mine… where a million diamonds… SHINE!
After a few hours of sleep, some breakfast, we drove off to the mine. We had to watch a training video and certify before getting dressed and geared up to go. Each of us had tall utility boots, a breathing device that hung on our hip belt, a hard hat with a light, safety glasses, ear buds and gloves. We all loaded up into one of the work trucks and Jef drove us through the mine. We weren’t sure what the mine was going to look like on the inside, I for one was disappointed not to see any singing dwarves and pick axes but oh well. There were so many roads in the mine I couldn’t imagine how people knew where they were headed. Of course for safety there were ropes on the ceilings with different types of shapes to tell you what direction you wanted to head for going out of the mine, going further in, or to various safety blocks in the event of an emergency. The machinery they used was impressive and the whole area made me feel small. It was cool to see everything in the mine, but I was happy for fresh air when we were finally out. We were in the mine for a good portion of the day and stopped for some food for dinner on our way back to his house.
Climbing
The next day we headed up to Colorado. We drove through the San Juan National Park and went climbing in an awesome area by the river. After a couple hours of that we drove to Durango to have dinner and look around at the shops. We headed back to Farmington after getting our fill and were tired after a day of climbing.
Mesa Verde
On the third and pretty much last day of our trip to have fun, we drove to Mesa Verde and Four Corners. Sadly, a few of the popular sites in the National Park like the Cliff Palace or the Balcony House were not opening until a week or two after our trip so we weren’t able to walk through them (talk about bad timing! Make sure you don’t make the same mistake and check ahead of time ). However, we still had a great view of them from the pull offs and were able to get great photos. We were able to walk through the Spruce Tree House where we traversed ladders and went off on a longer than desired hike in search of petroglyphs. There was battling for Doritos and a couple speeding tickets from an unhappy cop. All in all, an entertaining trip.
Four Corners
Even though it is an anticlimactic spot, we decided to drive to Four Corners since we were in the area. Four Corners is where the four states of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona join at a point. It is where you can stand in four states at once! We paid $5/person to get in, took some photos and drove off.
