My Favourite Places: Four Corners - UT, CO, AZ, NM
Posted by: Chris Hails in Geography, Wild West No Comments »
I have been going through my collection of old National Geographics and wanted to share one of my favourite issues.
It’s the September 1996 edition (Vol. 190, No 3 in case you want to buy a copy on eBay) and features a fantastic article and series of photos taken high above the Fours Corners region in the American Southwest.
Writer T.H. Watkins and former Navajo Nation pilot Adriel Heisey teamed up to produce a beautiful illustrated guide to what must be one of the most scenic and - for geologists, especially - most amazing landscapes on earth.
Watkins quotes WWII reporter Ernie Pyle to illustrate how many have loved the region for its isolated magnificence:
The only way to feel the country is to pause in it… in the desert it’s likely to occur to you that our daily lives in the cities are full of seeing, hearing, and worrying over a great many things that are of no damn consequence whatever.
Given the current state of the stockmarket this might be a nice quote to start the day with to soothe those pension fund concerns!
The region encompases some of the most amazing canyons you could hope to photograph - Dark Canyon, Marble Canyon and, of course, the Grand Canyon. Plus there are the glorious iconic Mittens in Monument Valley which have come to represent the mythic West.
I camped in the park back in 1991 and watched the sunrise at dawn, an unforgettable experience. In the absence of my photos I’ll point you to James Neeley’s shot of the Predawn Mittens.
For the Navajo this land is more than just a source of tourist income:
If a Navajo stands at at the center of the Four Corners country, he looks to the La Plata Mountains in southwestern Colorado, to Blanca Peak in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, to Mount Taylor in western New Mexico, and to the San Francisco peaks in northern Arizona. To the Navajo’s way of thinking, these are not just geographic points pinning down the four corner’s of the place where he happens to live, they are the bounds within which lie the ancient spiritual traditions of his people. In the Navajo cosmology, the landscape here is numinous with meaning and power, and when a person lives in harmony with the land and its spirit, he is said to be walking in beauty.
If you want to read more about this geographical anomoly, the only place in the United States where the corners of four states intersect, I’d highly recommend picking up a copy of Watkins’ article and perhaps even subscribing to the magazine.
