In the Southwestern desert core, New Mexico is full of stunning natural vistas.
Ranking 5th in size, New Mexico boasts an expansive desert topography. The state is also home to White Sands National Monument, Carlsbad Caverns, and Four Corners National Monument. We drove through a small portion of the Land of Enchantment, the final state we visited on our Summer 2016 trek.
Four Corners National Monument
In the middle of the barren Southwest desert is Four Corners Monument which signifies the point where the borders of four states (New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona) perfectly intersect. The attempt to identify which state this monument seemingly belongs to can be tricky, but the entrance is technically set in New Mexico. This isn’t just my opinion but some research can also confirm it.
Four Corners National Monument is one of the simplest places you can visit. Once we parked, we walked to a paved area where the state names were labeled, engraved, and divided on the ground to represent the intersection of four corners. There was an engraved circle in the middle to represent the point of unity for the four states. Visitors are free to stand between borders and take pictures.
I was thrilled to put my feet in Arizona and New Mexico, since I realized I couldn’t physically touch all four states at the same time. Surreal and memorable, stepping foot on two states at the same moment was something I would never experience again. What a mind-boggling concept to think the enormous amount of borders between fifty states, yet this was the only spot embodying the ability to incorporate multiple states at once. Our visit to Four Corners was a scorching one, at 95-100 °F the blazing sun made me squint at times just to avoid the sheer power of Southwestern heat.
Desert
I could see the desert terrain while driving into New Mexico and Four Corners, and sank in admiration of the iconic symbol of Southwest landscape. There were small, rocky, brown plateaus standing in the distance. Though not quite the size of mountains, but still provided a scenic backdrop. The rest of the prospect was a flat, full of pebble and loose dirt that littered the terrain with sheaths of burnt grass sprinkled throughout. The vegetation was practically non-existent, any remnants were cooked by the unbearable torridity. The only thing missing was tumbleweeds rolling by and maybe some cactuses.
