Four Corners vacation advice?

[bobbysamd]

Fmn

Read the following carefully. Stay away as far as possible from Farmington, New Mexico!! I lived there for a little more than three months. It was the longest three months of my life.

Having said that, if you still feel compelled to drive through Farmington, drive through quickly and head toward Shiprock. The view is amazing. Even better, find an airplane and view it from the air.

Have a nice trip.

 

[414Flyer]

You never made it to Gallup. I made it to Farmington a few times, it looked like a much much nicer place than Gallup.

 

[westwind]

We just did a marathon Griswald trip through the area last week and had a blast. Durango is cool, Telluride is even cooler. Mesa Verde is most definitely worth a visit. We didn't have time for more than a quick trip through Canyon de Chelly but will hit it again before long. Check out Antelope Canyon http://www.danheller.com/antelope.html , it looks terrific! The Goosenecks of the San Juan River is pretty neat as well. Monument Valley is majestic. The actual Four Corners is overblown but probably worth a visit (been there, done that, don't need to do it again). The drive around Chinle should be viewed with a long lens however. Beautiful 360 degree panoramic vistas abound. Just don't focus on the trashy roadways up close. No "Adopt-a-Highway" programs in the Indian Nation . The North Rim of the Grand Canyon might be open soon and is much less visited than the South Rim Zoo. Capitol Reef, Bryce and Zion are also wonderful. You will want to come back and see it all sometime. If you can rent a plane and fly over it before, you will get some of your own ideas on where to get a closer look by car. We were going to do just that in Sedona, but got shut down due to weather (actually pretty rare). Have a great time, the Southwest has had a wet winter and the wildflowers should be great even if you are probably a bit early for the peak season.

 

[snowman]

Telluride is very cool, as is Durango. Hmmm, tough to choose only one.
The old highway from utah into Cortez, Co. used to be highway 666. Yeah, the devil's highway.. I think they changed it. Many people took the signs... At least that is what I hear..
Adios
snowman

 

[jarhead]

I took a nine day scenic ride in February of 2004 with just my Golden Retriever and a digital Camera. I concur with another poster here, that Colorado and Utah have magnificent views. The high point of my road trip was two days in Bryce Canyon Utah, and a day in Zion National Park, Utah. The vista takes your breath away. Greatest motel in the world at Bryce Canyon called Ruby's Inn. Huge complex with every thing a guy could want, and reasonable prices. February was the low season, so I pretty much had the run of the place. No crowds.

On my return to the Midwest, I took an alternate route through northern Utah, Wyoming, and Nebraska. Also wonderful scenery there.

 

[bobbysamd]

Gallup

You never made it to Gallup. I made it to Farmington a few times, it looked like a much much nicer place than Gallup.

Actually, I drove through Gallup five times. I will not say Gallup was dreadful, but FMN was not much better. Friendly FSS on the airport, however.

 

[414Flyer]

Gallup had lots of drunks, beggars and extremely overweight uneducated women.

At least in FMN, it was much cleaner, you had some decent places to go eat, and even a few women (well at least more than Gallup). And you had Durango 45 min away.

 

[bobbysamd]

Farmington

At least in FMN, it was much cleaner . . . .

Somewhat, depending on the part of town. Some of the apartments were barely above squalor level.

[Y]ou had some decent places to go eat . . . .

You could at least get a decent fast-food burger with good fries at Blake's, Senor Pepper's on the airport served decent Mexican, there was a decent BBQ place off Navajo, and I recall some kind of a catfish restaurant on a side street off East 20th. Still, Farmington was a backwater, a fitting place for Mesa to be headquartered during those years.

 

[labbats]

Having lived in Durango several years ago, I hope it's not too late to throw my two cents in. Take the choo-choo up from Durango to Silverton and goof off. Then on your drive to Telluride, stop and enjoy Ouray. They don't call it little Switzerland for nothing.

And I second not going to Farmington. What a dump.

 

[Dan CFI/CFII]

As a native New Mexican (who would possibly take a tooth or two out of a few of you for defaming my state ), it's all in what you make of it.

Durango, eh. Silverton is pretty cool, Ouray is totally awesome. If you want the train, if the C&TS is running, it's far better scenery, and the money doesn't go to a rich dude in Florida. Canyonlands are awesome (Bryce, Zion, and others). Chama is absolutely beautiful (especially this time of year). Canyon de chelly is really, really cool. The reservation is pretty neat if you ask me, but then I enjoy travelling to third world countries. Skip Santa Fe, it's a uber-touristy jet-set town. Taos is neat (especially if you drive to the Ski Valley and can hike into Williams Lake--doable this time of year with snowshoes or skis, but not bad with boots).

Don't make too much of an itenerary, if you see a road that looks like it goes someplace cool, take it. And US550 is totally weak, it might as well be an interstate. Unless you take it to get to Dulce, there's pretty country in there. If you can get the old Taos highway into Espanola you'll really see some beautiful stuff, Embudo is looking real nice lately. But Taos is probably too far if you're trying to do all that.

And make sure you drive back into ABQ at night, Jim Glaser didn't write a song about the lights of Albuquerque for nothing.

And Angelfire is beautiful, you should try to get there if at all possible. Drop a line if you want to get real food in ABQ, gringo food sucks.

There's a lot to see out here. I've seen the vast majority of the world, and I'm not sure that I would want to live anywhere else.

Dan