Four Corners, U.S.A~Letterboxing

We arrived at the desolate and remote area of the Four Corners Region of the United States at 8:30pm, on our way from Utah to New Mexico.

The Four Corners Monument marks the quadripoint in the Navajo Nation and Ute Mountain Tribal Lands in the Southwest United States where the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet.

It is located on the Colorado Plateau west of U.S. Highway 160, 40 miles southwest of Cortez, Colorado. It is centered at 36°59′56.31532″N, 109°02′42.62019″W.

Not only is the point a perpendicular four-corner intersection, it is the only point in the United States shared by four states. A Ute Indian reservation abuts the point in Colorado. The landmark is run by the Navajo Nation Parks and Recreation Department and is a popular tourist attraction complete with Native American food and craft sales.
We arrived after it closed, so we just grabbed a photo with a gorgeous sunset in the background. While there a cute little stray tabby kitten ran into a hole. We tried to rescue it, but an Australian family got there first. We told them they should name him "Four Corners"! hehe

Nearby, Jackson and I searched for the "Four Corners" letterbox. And even though it was almost completely dark, Jackson managed to find it! Awesome!

Afterwards we drove home the rest of the way non-stop, getting there about 1am, with me at the wheel. When we arrived home we took care of all of our critters (guinea pigs, bunnies and kitties) and then fell into bed exhausted!
What a fantastic trip full of wonderful experiences and memories we will never forget!

Indian Creek, Utah~Letterboxing

Just past the Newspaper Rock, we took a little hiking trail diversion to find a letterbox placed by 'Kennamtn' called "Indian Creek" box. We thought it might be a drive-by, but it proved to be a little bit longer of a hike and more rugged. We did come to realize that the extra work was 510% worth it, though! One word: "Wow!

At first I got the clues mixed up and headed down the Indian Creek, and then when we back-tracked and found the trail towards the red rock, we took the wrong side-trail and came upon a petroglyph panel, though impressive, was small and not the one we were supposed to find.

After reading over the clues several times and looking at the terrain features, we climbed around the red rock to the other side and literally stumbled upon one of the most impressive displays of petroglyph art panels I've ever seen.
There was, what appeared to be, long etched trails across the rock with groups of people and animals traveling along it, while ghostlike figures (maybe Kachinas or Spirits?) floated above them.
My heart was filled with joy and I felt a sort of kindred connection seeing this panel and knowing that there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of these amazing rock art panels scattered all over these canyons.
Jackson and I were just so happy to be brought here to find this sacred place.

Jackson had to rock climb about 10 feet up to find the letterbox, but we both agreed that the entire experience was so worth it!

Newspaper Rock, Utah~Letterboxing

About 15 miles north of Monticello, Utah, we took a detour on Hwy 211 towards the Canyonlands National Park (Needles District). We were there to be awed by an impressive 200 foot densely etched Petroglyph Panel called Newspaper Rock. Newspaper Rock is a State Monument. The artwork is represented from Archaic, Fremont, Anasazi (Puebloan), Ute, Navajo, and even Hispanic and Ango cultures.
The Navajo call this rock "Tse 'Hane" (Rock that tells a story).

We were very impressed, of course and we spent a bit of time examining the different petroglyphs and discussing who might have etched them into the rock, and why, and what the etchings could have meant. John especially enjoyed this 'Artwork News over-the-centuries' panel.
We also located Kat's amazing letterbox here and the super hand-carved stamp. (Can you tell we love her boxes? hehe)

Hole N The Rock & Wilson Arch, Utah~Letterboxing

South of Moab we stopped off at the Hole N The Rock Rest Area, a beautiful, clean little green park surrounded by red rock. We quickly found the "Spanish Trail" box, but we didn't attempt the "Hole in the Rock" box because we had read the clues that it had gone missing. The box we found, though, was placed by our favorite Utah letterboxer, Kat, and contained a really terrific hand-carved stamp! (Click on the photo for a close-up. The park is on the left side under all the lush trees)

Afterwards, we stopped off at Wilson Arch just so Jax and Jem could climb into the arch again. (Click photo to see a close-up of them in the arch)

Moab~Letterboxing (Found our 100th box!!!)

We woke up Saturday morning in Moab, ate breakfast and did some goofing off at the hotel. Jax and Jem keep asking us to build a pirate ship in our yard, like the one at the hotel. Wish we could because it was tons of fun to play on.


The back of the hotel, near the pool and spa, had some amazingly beautiful murals.


Then we set off for some exploring and letterboxing in the scenic Colorado River canyon off Potash Rd., just north of Moab. We were there to find a 125 ft Petroglyph panel created during the Formative period of rock art by the Fremont Tribes dated to between 800-1200 yrs ago. We were very impressed with these Petroplyphs, the first of many we would discover today, and we were equally impressed with the terrific letterbox and hand-carved stamp, placed by 'Kat', too.
Next we drove through the very same canyon, but from the opposite side of the Colorado River. We all enjoyed seeing this different perspective of this beautiful canyon. There was so much to be awed by that I couldn't bear to take many photos. I just knew that pictures would never do this place justice. It's not so much about the rock formations or the colors, but more about size and immensity. The Canyonlands area belies explanation. It completely overwhelms all your senses.
But John still took some pretty good photos. Below are a few of them.





On this side of the canyon we found our !!!ONE HUNDREDTH LETTERBOX!!! And what a perfect letterbox for the occasion, too! This letterbox brought us to a close-kept secret place where a rare and unusual petropglyph panel depicts a birthing scene. Notice the 'feet first' position of the infant. Our minds were boggled considering that the actual birth may have taken place right at this rock. We were very impressed to be brought to this unique location. (Thank you Kat!!)
Kat placed an impressive letterbox nearby, called "Dourown Petroglyph Panel" box which included a multitude of hand-carved petroglpyh style rock art stamps, of which we were invited to stamp our own Petroglyph panels in our log books! How cool is THAT?!!.

Not too far from Kat's box, another letterboxer placed a fun box called "Art on the Rocks". This box was placed into a huge jumble of rocks that required some rock scrambling. I don't know how Jackson does it, be he always manages to find tougher hidden letterboxes, even when my own eyes can't uncover their hiding places.

Along the road into the canyon, there were a number of homes built into the rock. Some were more rustic, or basic, like a bunch of wood built against a hole in the rock, and some were elaborate stone homes, like the one being built below.
The mighty Colorado River.

Provo to Moab~Letterboxing

We left Provo yesterday morning around 11am and drove south to Moab, with plans to do some letterboxing and spend the night in Moab.
Just north of Moab, we took a small detour and sadly discovered that one of the boxes we were looking for "Winged Spirit" had gone missing.
But our own spirits took wing when we found "HorseThief Trail" letterbox with an excellent hand carved stamp inside!
And then we back-tracked and found another great drive-by box placed during a Moab Letterboxing gathering by a talented 10 year old girl. The "Fish Out of Water" stamp even impressed and inspired my own 10 yr old boys!

We also did some exploring around the Canyonlands area and Dead Horse Point. We were awed by all those impressive, jaw-dropping views.

We got into Moab around 6pm, got set up in a very nice hotel, with a great pool and hot tub, very cool pirate play ground and gorgeous views of the rugged, high Comb Ridge. Right away the kids had a ball playing on the pirate play area. Then we ordered some excellent take-out, including some unique Scorpion Pale Ale, from Moab Brewery, enjoyed our meal, and then took a dip in the pool.
I'm wiped out and heading to bed now, but wanted to upload our photos and experiences of today.
Tomorrow, some more letterboxing around Moab and into Colorado and New Mexico, and then back home to recuuperate and look back with great memories on our week in Utah!
(Click on the photos below for larger, better views)

Sandy, Utah~Letterboxing

Ok. This is one of my favorite reasons why we love letterboxing!

We left Wheeler Historic Farm, another place we'd have never visited if it had not been for letterboxes placed there by folks wanting to share their favorite local places with us. We then drove south to the town of Sandy, Utah.
We were trying to avoid the worst of the southbound Salt Lake City rush hour, and find some more letterboxes in the process.

First we stopped off at a hidden little wetlands park, smack-dab in the center of a subdivision, but feeling worlds away! We'd have never visited here, if it weren't for the letterboxing clues encouraging us to visit. And what a shame that would have been!

There were 2 letterboxes hidden within the park: Wetlands #1 Catch & Release and
Wetlands #2 Fowl Play, both by the same letterboxer. Our clues led us to walk along meandering wood chip trails, across boardwalks and bridges, and under big green trees. And all along the way we spied wildlife, such as ducks, lizards, quail, frogs, birds, dragonflies, and even fish!
This was such a unique place that we spent quite a bit of time here.

The first letterbox was easy-peasy to find and such a cool stamp, too!
The second letterbox required us to employ S.A.D (Stealth and Distraction) because the box was placed in a location where several folks were fishing off the pier.
Our team worked together expertly, and Jackson snagged the letterbox and we were all quite proud of him and our teamwork when noone caught us in-the-'boxing-act! hehe

This second stamp was equally terrific and we were glad we were able to work together to find it.

One of the trails
A catfish that one of the people fishing caught, a little girl and her grandpa. Nice folks!
The grandpa holding the catfish just before they released it. Jenna got a kick out of the fish's 'whiskers'.
While stamping and logging in beside the pond, we enjoyed the beauty and nature of this special place.
Good trees to climb and hide within, too.

After leaving the Wetlands park, we drove a bit east, still in Sandy, so we could explore the Sego Lily Gardens. Between 1840-1851 food became scarce in Utah due to crop-devouring crickets. People discovered that they could dig up and eat the bulbous root of the Sego Lily. So along with the memory of this life-giving plant, and it's natural beauty, Utah selected the Sego Lily as it's floral emblem.

Which was why we were there to visit.....to find one of the Utah State Symbols Letterbox Series: Sego Lily.
And what a special neighborhood park, surrounded by homes, but filled with beauty, such as a Japanese Garden, vegetable garden, waterfalls, fountains, graceful paths, and labels marking many different plants and flowers. All this made for a relaxing and educational experience.
And the letterbox stamp was wonderful too!

Salt Lake City, Utah~Letterboxing

After dropping John off at the Lacrosse Sportz Camp after we enjoyed lunch together in the BYU cafeteria, the kidlets and I drove up to Draper to get a few things at IKEA again. On our first trip to IKEA, I bought one organizer box, because that was all they had left. But Jax and Jem fell in love with these cool stackable storage boxes with removable dividers inside, and they wanted to buy a bunch of them for their Lego storage. So, when we were told that another shipment was coming in the next day, we knew we had to come back! hehe

We ended up buying 15 of them! I know that with their Legos, Jenna's collections, and our art supplies we will use every one of those boxes, too! hehe!

Anyway, we left IKEA and drove up to Salt Lake City to visit the Wheeler Historic Farm, a little gem originally owned by the Wheeler Family in the 1800's and now operated by the City of Salt Lake.
With all the uniqueness and beauty of this place, it surprised me that the farm had no entrance fees at all. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves there....the weather was beautiful, and of course we searched for some letterboxes there, too.

We found all 4 boxes of the "On The Farm" Series, which happened to be the most adorable little animal stamps, including a cow, pig, goose and sheep! Too darn cute and all simple as pie to find!!
We also found the "Farmin' Fun Fer All' box, too. It was close-by an impressive Box Elder tree where a film crew was filming a new movie called, "The Librarian". We were excited to watch the adult actors and the child actors, as well as the flim crew working on the scenes.

For more info about Wheeler Historic Farm, Click here:Wheeler Historic Farm

Jenna enjoyed the talkative 'Woolies"
Jax and Jem loved climbing up on the farm equipment. The farm is a working farm with a huge garden full of veggies!
A friendly cow. Mooo!
A big gorgeous horse, one of those that pulls a wagon on the farm.
A couple of charming piglets! Check out the silly piggy eating his dinner INSIDE his bowl! hehe
An inquisitive turkey "Gobble, Gobble!!" There were many friendly critters at the farm.
The Terrific Trio takes a Potty Break!! (Complete with all the expressive noises, too! Ewww!)
Jenna wishing for a REAL horse under that saddle!
Standing in front of, what used to be the farm's Ice Ponds (to cool their food and milk). Now a fun little duck pond with happy ducks and geese. Notice the Little Cottonwood River flowing in the background. A nice place to splash around and dip tired feet inside, too!
Another beautiful horse at the farm
The original Wheeler Family Farm home. The boys are munching on granny smith apples that they picked from one of the many apple trees on the farm. Yummy!