On route to the state of Colorado we travelled through the state of New Mexico. Wow, what can I say. New Mexico is clearly cowboy country. There are just vast
expanses of nothingness and then lone mountains and rock formations by the side of the highway. Kat slept most the way and I drove over 170 miles with nothing
but tumbleweeds rolling across the highway and the big rigs barrelling down. After about 50 miles of driving it was obvious that this was the place for cruise
control so I flicked it on set the speed to 5 mph over the limit and let the scenery roll by.
Then we arrived in Colorado and as if immediately after crossing the border the scenery changed to green plains. The cars changed to 4x4's and it began to rain.
Rain that didn't really stop for the entire time we were in the state and actually two days after we left the state there was extreme flooding and at least two
people died. Thankfully we avoided the worst of this, even if we did think our car was going to be flooded in the car park several times.
Out of all the national & state parks that we had planned to visit in America this was the one which we had least cared about and were originally only stopping here since we were passing near-by. Little did we know that this was rated as part of the Big 3 national parks to see in the states. It was definitely a different type of national park to the rest we had and were to visit. This national park was where indigenous americans had lived for hundreds of years in dwelling made of mud, wood and stone against the sheer cliff backdrops which they used to protect themselves from the elements such as wind and rain. We managed to drive around most the park (in true lazy american fashion) and even managed to go into one of the cliff dwellings, albeit after a steep hike down to the canyon floor (and back up again). Inside the dwelling they had many rooms, floors and the occasional basement used for storage and keeping warm in the winter months.
From here we headed out of state and into the state of Utah.
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