Four Corners Monument: A Tourist Trap?
While vacationing in Mesa Verde National Park with my kids, we made the short drive to visit Four Corners Monument. It’s the only place in the United States where you can stand in four states at once. It’s worth a visit – at least once in your life.
But Four Corners Monument has also been listed among the top 50 tourist traps in the United States. Let me give you an idea of what you can expect on your visit – then you can decide if it’s a trap or not.
UPDATE: Despite being closed during much of the global pandemic, Four Corners Monument has reopened to the public. They are asking that all visitors wear a mask as per the Navajo Nation Mask Mandate. Regardless of where you stand on mask mandates, I hope you’ll be respectful of this request from the Navajo Nation.
Getting to Four Corners Monument
The access road to the Four Corners Monument is in New Mexico. Highway 160 stretches from Arizona to Colorado, with about 1 mile of the road in New Mexico. That said, about one half-mile into New Mexico from either direction (Colorado or Arizona), turn north on Four Corners Road.
Roughly half a mile up the road, you’ll see a small booth. Stop there to pay the $5 per person charge. I recommend bringing cash. There isn’t an ATM nearby and you can never be sure they accept credit cards or that the credit card machines are working.
Once you pass by the entrance booth, find a parking spot. The monument is a large slab of granite surrounded by single-level “shops” on each side of the square.
Obligatory Photo Standing in Four States at Once
How do you want to pose for your photo on the spot where the four states meet? My son laid flat on his back. My daughter did a crab walk, that way she had a different extremity in each state. Andrew, my oldest son, stood smack dab in the middle and smiled like any typical teenager. I’ve heard of people who had their dog stand with a leg in each state. It’s definitely a very popular spot to stretch your limbs into each state.
Be mindful of other groups wanting to grab a photo. After all, everyone paid $5 to be there, too.
Beware of the High-pressure Vendors
Each side of the square has vendors selling a variety of items. My son bought a small clay canoe with desert landscapes painted on the side. We snagged a small piece of art from one of the artisans, thinking we would display it somewhere in hour house – which never happened. We were able to find our standard souvenir patch for Four Corners. Wahoo!
Some of the items were pretty cool – a ornamental ax or toy bow and arrow, artwork to hang on your wall, or clay figurines with a Native American flare.
But what annoyed me was the high-pressure sales tactics used by several of the vendors. We were on the fence about purchasing the piece of artwork, and the vendor just kept at it. I’m sort of a pushover, so the longer we stayed there thinking about it, the more likely we were to buy. We bought, and now it’s sitting in storage somewhere.
The experience was almost like the street vendors in Chichen Itza in Mexico who were calling out “Prices so low, it’s almost free” as you walked by. I didn’t test my negotiating skills at Four Corners like I did in Cancun – but maybe you’re stronger than me in that area. 😉
Is it Geographically Accurate?
While researching the answer to this question a couple years ago, it appeared the monument was off by about 1,800 feet. Other accounts placed it off by 2.5 miles. But someone pointed out an interesting article from the National Geodetic Survey, which stated this:
A basic tenet of boundary surveying is that once a monument has been established and accepted by the parties involved (in the case of the Four Corners monument, the parties were the four territories and the U.S. Congress), the location of the physical monument is the ultimate authority in delineating a boundary. Issues of legality trump scientific details, and the intended location of the point becomes secondary information. In surveying, monuments rule!
https://www.ngs.noaa.gov/INFO/fourcorners.shtml
So while it appears to be accurate, it’s accurate because all the parties have signed off on it being accurate. Therefore, the monument built in 1992 (which is what still exists today) is in the right spot. Even Google Maps with Earth View shows the state borders converging on this single spot. And while I always thought Utah’s borders were straight lines with 90-degree angles, that isn’t the case around the Four Corners Monument. The Utah border veers a little east to line up in the perfect spot for everything to be accurate.
Yes, this is being nit-picky, but just wanted to share the history and geography of this landmark.
The Details
Cost: $5 per person. Best practice is to pay in cash. Credit cards don’t always work, and the nearest ATM is a long drive away.
Hours: Between April 1 and September 30, the monument is open from 8 a.m. to 5:45 p.m., Monday through Sunday. During the off-season (October 1-March 31), the monument is open from 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., Monday through Sunday. The monument is closed on all major holidays (Thanksgiving Day, Navajo Nation Family Day, Christmas Day and New Years).
Website: navajonationparks.org
Phone: (928) 206-2540
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The location of the Four Corners Monument is, in fact, accurate. While it was originally off by ~1,800 feet from where it was *intended* to be marked, that intent is immaterial as this point is now the exact spot where all 4 states meet. https://www.ngs.noaa.gov/INFO/fourcorners.shtml
Brian, thanks for sharing. What I found most interesting about that article was this line: “A basic tenet of boundary surveying is that once a monument has been established and accepted by the parties involved (in the case of the Four Corners monument, the parties were the four territories and the U.S. Congress), the location of the physical monument is the ultimate authority in delineating a boundary. Issues of legality trump scientific details, and the intended location of the point becomes secondary information. In surveying, monuments rule!” I’ll review and update this post accordingly.
I visited Four Corners with my dog (Put one paw in each state!) in the early nineties and we didny’t pay a fee. Is this a new thing?
I’m not sure when they started to charge a fee, but when my family visited Four Corners in 2015, we paid a per-person fee (cash required, no cards accepted).