Today we are heading to The Four Corners Monument which marks the quadripoint in the Southwestern United States. The four western states of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico all meet at the monument. It’s the only place in the country where four states come together. The region, uniting the canyons, buttes, and high desert trails that weave through the northwest New Mexico, northeast Arizona, southeast Utah and southwest Colorado is best visited during the fall and summertime. Here’s what we learned when we visited the Four Corners Monument during our trip.
History
The genesis of Four Corners as a novelty on a map dated back to 1846, when the U.S. Army invaded and defeated Mexico in the Mexican-American War. Furthermore, with the treaty of Guadalupe y Hidalgo in place, the U.S. gained control of California, Nevada, and Utah as well as parts of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Wyoming. The original survey monument, a sandstone marker, was erected in 1899, and was soon replaced with a small metal and cement marker during the early nineteen hundreds. The four corners were originally declared by Congress, but an early surveying error misplaced the location. The U.S. Supreme Court later ruled that the location was so popular, that it should be recognized as the boundary between the four states. For most of the 20th century, however, the Monument was very simple, consisting of a few steps leading up to an open concrete pad, with a couple posts along with highway guard rails surrounding it. The Monument received a makeover in 1992 and now includes a flat slab of granite embedded with an aluminum bronze marker, as well as surrounding states flags and state seals.
Expect to wait your turn
Almost everyone who visits The Four Corners Monument wants to take a picture of themselves standing in all four states at once. Visitors, at least from our experience, are considerate and typically try not to take too much time when visiting the location. This helps make the line move faster for those interested in taking pictures. Here is some additional information that may be helpful if you are considering visiting.....
Hours & Fees:
Amenities: Primitive toilets and picnic tables. Fry bread and souvenirs are also available to purchase if you get hungry, or just want a souvenir.
All in all it was fun to visit the one time, for us it's a one and done, at least until Garrett is much older!!
History
The genesis of Four Corners as a novelty on a map dated back to 1846, when the U.S. Army invaded and defeated Mexico in the Mexican-American War. Furthermore, with the treaty of Guadalupe y Hidalgo in place, the U.S. gained control of California, Nevada, and Utah as well as parts of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Wyoming. The original survey monument, a sandstone marker, was erected in 1899, and was soon replaced with a small metal and cement marker during the early nineteen hundreds. The four corners were originally declared by Congress, but an early surveying error misplaced the location. The U.S. Supreme Court later ruled that the location was so popular, that it should be recognized as the boundary between the four states. For most of the 20th century, however, the Monument was very simple, consisting of a few steps leading up to an open concrete pad, with a couple posts along with highway guard rails surrounding it. The Monument received a makeover in 1992 and now includes a flat slab of granite embedded with an aluminum bronze marker, as well as surrounding states flags and state seals.
Expect to wait your turn
Almost everyone who visits The Four Corners Monument wants to take a picture of themselves standing in all four states at once. Visitors, at least from our experience, are considerate and typically try not to take too much time when visiting the location. This helps make the line move faster for those interested in taking pictures. Here is some additional information that may be helpful if you are considering visiting.....
Hours & Fees:
- November 1st-March 31st: 8:00 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.
- April 1st-May (before Memorial weekend) 8:00 a.m.-6:45 p.m.
- The Monuments closed on holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years).
Amenities: Primitive toilets and picnic tables. Fry bread and souvenirs are also available to purchase if you get hungry, or just want a souvenir.
All in all it was fun to visit the one time, for us it's a one and done, at least until Garrett is much older!!
Garrett made sure he had his Kayley doll and drink for the day.
 Our stop for Lunch, food was just OK. Service was horrible :( |  Our view from inside of the restaurant. |
Getting ready to enter the park. We were surprised at how busy it was. So far we are getting lucky with Garrett's age. This year he will be 5 and it won't be much longer before we have to start paying for him :(
After we entered inside we went around and visited all of the vendors and looked at what they were selling. We all purchased a couple of things and Garrett had fun playing while we waited for Grandma Sutton and Dad to catch up with us.
This large group of bicyclists was in front of us. They were bicycling for Cancer and we had actually seen them riding on the road as we were heading in.
Grandma Sutton and Garrett waiting patiently for our turn :)
Garrett found some kids to play with while we waited. He was having a great time!!
It was finally our turn and the nice family behind us offered to take our pictures for us. I think they turned out great!!
Garrett takes his Kayley doll everywhere we go!! She's racking up the states as well :)
Garrett stopping to check out the cactus. Of course the thing that could really hurt him he is really interested in.....geesh!!
Taking some pictures of the area while Garrett finishes up his snow cone. The kid won't eat ice cream, but he will eat flavored ice. He is so funny!!
After we finished up we headed out. We were going to Canyon De Chelle National Monument the next day. Our drive to get to our location was Beautiful!! Our country is absolutely the most breathtaking thing sometimes. On our way there we saw wild horses running, we saw gorgeous mountains. I feel so lucky and blessed that we are able to live this life.
Tim actually pulled off the road to take these pictures. Do you see the wild horses? They were so much further away. Garrett was very interested in the bones that were left behind. Not sure if those were steer bones or horse bones or something else. It was definitely something larger and this area is all free range. Ugh, the pictures just don't do enough justice for what we saw!!
Tim actually pulled off the road to take these pictures. Do you see the wild horses? They were so much further away. Garrett was very interested in the bones that were left behind. Not sure if those were steer bones or horse bones or something else. It was definitely something larger and this area is all free range. Ugh, the pictures just don't do enough justice for what we saw!!
We continued driving on...and literally not 15 minutes up the road we came across this area. OMG it was so beautiful. It literally took my breath away, so much beauty!! I saw a pullout but Tim passed by it too quickly so he turned around and came back. This time he was able to pull off so him and his mom could get out and take some pictures. Once again the pictures just don't do justice to what we actually saw!!
We finally arrived at the hotel, dropped our bags and went out for Pizza. Yummy!! We got back to the hotel about 6 pm and Tim and Garrett went swimming. Garrett of course loved having his dad play with him in the pool!!
Was a great day and we were all exhausted. Ready for our fun day at Canyon De Chelle tomorrow!!