NIN Vegas Adventure – Day 4 – “Through the Res”

Day 4 (6/18/18)

Morning came and it was time to boogie out of beautiful Flagstaff and head to beautiful Durango…through the reservation lands.  Now I’d never been through this part of the country before, but from what I could tell via the Google Maps satellite imagery there was a reason this land was chosen to be given as a reservation.  So as we set out for the day, I had the mindset of trying to get through the reservation lands as quick as possible.  Heading out of Flagstaff we passed a residential road called “Kevins Way” which I was impressed with…my name being Kevin and everything.  Looking in the rear view mirror was the last we would see of any trees for a good while.

Luckily for us it wasn’t windy so the ride was quite enjoyable despite there not being too much to look at. Even though the view was lacking, I thought the land was a different kind of pretty…not something I see every day I guess, giving it its own uniqueness and charm.  We passed some massive culverts and I wish we would have stopped and snapped some pics…I’ll eventually learn to slow down and get those shots.  Eventually we found ourselves in Tuba City where we stopped for an ass-rest where a gal was nice enough to snap a picture for us.

We then carried on through the quite deserted part of the country to Kayenta for some fuel for ourselves and the bikes. They had a cool painted map on the wall in the gas station too so I snapped a pic. When we left and rode just a little further we could start to make out mountains in the distance, a most welcome sight.  After rolling though a few more quiet little towns we found ourselves at the Four Corners.  Why I was under the impression it would be free for us to just roll up to, check out, and leave is beyond me, because it was very much not that.  I think it was only $5, but I didn’t feel like giving any extra money to stand in a spot that isn’t even where the four states meet. So we stood on the road for a bit, stretched some, took another picture, and called that good enough.

Yes!  Finally we were back on our home turf, in the great(ish) state of Colorado!  We made our way through the rest of the flatlands, stopping in Cortez where I realized my arms were starting to get a little tosty so I stopped to put on some more sunscreen. I thought the town was a lot smaller than it turned out to be so we quick stopped to do this at the G-Whil liquor store and then figured since we’re using their parking lot I might as well buy something. They didn’t have any singles of the 12oz cans so a 24oz’er was the only option to quickly hammer down. If you look closely enough you can see it hiding there by the rear tire…  After that we jetted into the mountains and it was just what the doctor ordered…being on curvy, hilly, familiar roads.

We got into town and our motel had some funny signs up. The guy at the desk was super cool, he pointed out the hose and soap and said he’d put some rags out if we wanted to wash our bikes. Very friendly folks indeed. And the room had a pair of recliners too which I found peculiar but also quite enjoyable. Durango was a little smoky from the (at the time) currently burning forest fire but really not too bad.

We kicked our boots of and let the dogs quick barking for a bit and then walked up to a pretty good BBQ place for some dinner.  And since we were in town we had to stop at Ska Brewing too since we’ve had their beers before, but never “fresh.”  Really tasty brews if you’ve not had them before.  That’s about all we had in us for the second to last day of the trip.  There was a decent amount of miles ahead for the last day so we turned in early in preparation.