Our destination today is Hovenweep, where there are some more ruins from the later period, but first we stopped at the famous Four Corners Monument.  This is clearly a tourist trap.  It is run by the native people in the area, and they rook you for 8 bucks to go in (about time they got something back from us, if you ask me).  There’s not much to see once you stand in several states at once, or lie down, or play Twister, or put yourself through whatever contortions you care to put yourself through to be in four states at once, but there are four virtual geocaches there, one for each state, so of course I had to collect those.  We skipped the contortions, but Tim stood in two states and I stood in two.  Separated by various state lines!

Rumors in the media have had it that Four Corners Monument is not actually at the geographical spot where the four states meet; however, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says otherwise.  It says that the current monument was built in 1996 using modern GPS technology and is correct to within an inch.   There is an argument to be made that the historically intended intersection of the four states is not where the monument is; however, this, from the NOAA website, is quite interesting: "Finally, we cannot overemphasize the fact that the aforementioned technical geodetic details are absolutely moot when considering any question of the correctness or validity of the Four Corners monument in marking the intersection of the four states. Indeed, the monument marks the exact spot where the four states meet. A basic tenet of boundary surveying is that once a monument has been established and accepted by the parties involved (in the case of the Four Corners monument, the parties were the four territories and the U.S. Congress), the location of the physical monument is the ultimate authority in delineating a boundary. Issues of legality trump scientific details, and the intended location of the point becomes secondary information. In surveying, monuments rule!"  By definition, then, the monument is at the Four Corners, because the monument determined where the four corners would be.  Read all about it here.

I made this a separate blog entry because it is an unusual spot, and I wanted it to be a pin on the trip map.  Goofy, I know.