Last night Glen and I were talking about going to Gallup New Mexico today, but changed our minds and decided to go to Cortez in Colorado which is where Mesa Verde National Park is. So we drove East for about 2 hours and then turned off Interstate 40 and started heading North on Highway 491. Little did we know how interesting and spectacular the views would be. Having never driven this Highway we really didn't know what to expect. We discovered that we were driving right through the middle of the Navajo Nation. Along the way we went through tiny villages or towns with names such as Ya-Ta-Hey, Tohatchi, Naschitti, Sheep Springs, and Shiprock.
The landscape is arid and desolate. But scattered along the way we saw giant monolithic columns of rock jutting out of the earth, and vast plateaus where I could imagine Native people sitting bareback on their horses watching us pass through their land. In some of the towns we saw Navajo Kivas which are traditionally used for ceremonies. And lots and lots of horses, unharnessed and grazing or running free which is a beautiful sight to behold.
If any of you are ever traveling in New Mexico and would like to experience a road less traveled and not as chaotic as Interstate 40 can be, I highly recommend Highway 491.
Cheers and Happy Trails.
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