To the four corners of the Earth

Geological oddities abound in the American southwest.

There’s literally a new, astounding earthly feature to be seen on both sides of the road every few minutes.

Geographical oddities, on the other hand are rare, mainly because they are mostly man made.

One of the great geographical oddities of the American southwest is Four Corners. This is the place where four American states, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and Utah come together at perfect right angles.

What makes it odd is singularly human.

But first you have to get there.

The Four Corners is not nearby anything. From Santa Fe it is quite a jaunt — south on Interstate 25 to Bernalillo, and the required breakfast of blue corn tortillas, eggs, beans, and potatoes at the venerable Range cafe.

Then it’s a journey back to the northwest on US 550 that on a day in late May can easily result in conditions that are less springtime and more Arctic. The road on a typically sunny New Mexico day is an easy traveler. On a more blustery day, or worse, it can be decidedly adversarial — can you say frozen rain and hail? Even though quitting, tucking tail and slinking home, or tucking into a local inn are thoughts that dominate the mind, pressing on is the best course — for in New Mexico it rarely rains like the three-or-four-day downpours of the northeast or Florida. “Don’t like the weather,” the locals say, “then just wait thirty minutes, it’ll change.”

Through the towns of Bloomfield and Farmington you stretch out into a no-man’s-land that eventually leads to the Four Corners monument, a monument — to surveyors.

It is in the middle of nowhere. How turn-of-the-century surveyors found this place and marked it is, well, history. And it is packed with tourists. And they are all doing the same thing. This is the oddity part. They are all doing whatever it takes to physically exist in four U.S. states at one time.

“Look mommy, I’m in Colorado,” a little boy shouts. “Yeah, well, I’m in Arizona,” counters his big sister. “I’m in Utah AND Arizona, now,” squeals the boy, upping the ante. “Give someone else a turn,” says the mom.

If you are from one the Four Corner states there’s also this weird feeling of underlying territoriality to the monument. Listening to the kids brag about how many states they were visiting simultaneously, I felt strangely insulted that no one seemed to brag about being in New Mexico. Then I realized I’d unwittingly parked my bike in Colorado. I felt a strange urge to move it to New Mexico, it would only be a matter of a few feet. What a silly thought, but I had the thought none-the-less.

Leaving the monument you exit New Mexico and enter Arizona headed toward the little town of Bluff, Utah. Utah, now there’s a state dominated by geological oddities, except that that most Americans believe it’s just dominated by genealogical oddities. Needless to say, Utah is a most misunderstood place.