Four Corners: Mesa Verde, Monument Valley and Chaco Canyon

1. Jour 1 : Arrive in Durango

   Durango-La Plata County Airport to your hotel in historic Durango

   • Environ 30 min de route
   • Welcome dinner
   • Nuit : Durango
   Détail du jour 1

   Fly into Durango-La Plata County Airport (DRO), about 25 km south-east of town, where a driver meets you for the short ride in. Durango sits at about 1,990 m in the valley of the Animas River, a railway town founded in 1880, and the brick blocks of Main Avenue still look much as they did when the narrow-gauge line to Silverton opened. Check in, drink plenty of water and take the afternoon gently, because the altitude is noticeable on the first day. In the late afternoon your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short walk along Main Avenue to the old railway depot, then a briefing on the week: the Mesa Verde ladders, how the Navajo-guided days work, the dirt road to Chaco and what to pack for cool mornings and hot afternoons. Then we sit down together to a welcome dinner in town.

   Compris

   • Pick-up at Durango-La Plata County Airport (DRO)
   • Welcome walk along Main Avenue with your guide
   • Welcome briefing
   • Welcome dinner

   Temps libre : Free until the late-afternoon walk

   Activité : Plan to land by about 3 pm to join the walk and the briefing; later arrivals are met and join us at dinner.

   

2. Jour 2 : Mesa Verde with a park ranger

   Durango to Mesa Verde National Park (Chapin Mesa) and back

   • Environ 3 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Durango
   Détail du jour 2

   We leave Durango at about 7:30 am and drive west for an hour to the Mesa Verde entrance, then climb for another 40 minutes on the winding park road onto Chapin Mesa, at about 2,100 m. Mesa Verde was one of the first places on the UNESCO World Heritage list, in 1978, and protects thousands of Ancestral Puebloan sites, from 7th-century pithouses to the cliff dwellings built in sandstone alcoves in the 1200s. The heart of the day is a ranger-led tour of a cliff dwelling, Cliff Palace or Balcony House, at the earliest morning slot we can book for the group as soon as tickets are released, so we are on the ladders before the midday crowds and heat. Before or after it, the Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum sets the story in order, and the Mesa Top Loop takes in pithouse sites, Sun Temple and the overlooks across to Cliff Palace and Square Tower House. Lunch is a sit-down meal on the mesa. We are back in Durango in the late afternoon, with the evening free.

   Compris

   • Mesa Verde National Park entry
   • Ranger-led tour of Cliff Palace or Balcony House, with ladders
   • Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum
   • The Mesa Top Loop: pithouse sites, Sun Temple, the Cliff Palace and Square Tower House overlooks
   • Lunch on the mesa

   Activités en option

   • Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, on a day added before the trip

   Option plus facile : Skip the ladders: stay on the Mesa Top Loop with your guide and see Cliff Palace from the overlook across the canyon.

   Option plus active : Petroglyph Point Trail, a 3.9 km loop below the rim to a rock-art panel, when the park has it open.

   Temps libre : Evening free in Durango

   Activité : Cliff Palace has several short ladders and about 120 uneven stone steps; Balcony House has a ladder of about 10 m and a narrow crawl-through tunnel. Which tour runs depends on the season and the park's ticket release, and we confirm it with your final itinerary.

   

3. Jour 3 : Through the Four Corners to Monument Valley

   Durango to Cortez and the Four Corners Monument, then Kayenta and Monument Valley

   • Environ 4 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Monument Valley
   Détail du jour 3

   We leave Durango after breakfast and drive west through Cortez, past the long green shoulder of Mesa Verde, and down into the high desert where Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico meet. The Four Corners Monument, run by the Navajo Nation, is a short stop to stand in four states at once and buy from Native craft sellers at their stalls. From there the road crosses the Navajo Nation, the largest reservation in the United States, to Kayenta for a sit-down lunch, then north into Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, about 300 km and three and three-quarter hours of driving in all. We check in and rest through the heat. In the late afternoon a Navajo guide takes us in an open vehicle beyond the public loop into areas only guided visitors may enter, to rock arches such as Ear of the Wind and Big Hogan, and to petroglyphs. We finish at sunset below the Mittens, then dinner together.

   Compris

   • Four Corners Monument (when open)
   • Sit-down lunch in Kayenta
   • Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park entry
   • Navajo-guided backcountry drive in an open vehicle to Ear of the Wind, Big Hogan and rock art, ending at sunset
   • Dinner in Monument Valley

   Temps libre : Mid-afternoon free to rest before the drive

   Activité : The backcountry drive is on unpaved, bumpy sand tracks for about three hours. Bring a scarf or buff for the dust.

   

4. Jour 4 : Sunrise in Monument Valley, then Canyon de Chelly

   Monument Valley to Kayenta, Many Farms and Chinle, then the South Rim Drive

   • Environ 2.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Chinle
   Détail du jour 4

   Set an early alarm: the sun rises behind the Mittens and Merrick Butte, and from the visitor centre terrace the buttes stand black against the light before they turn red. After breakfast we drive about two and a quarter hours south through Kayenta and Many Farms to Chinle, the Navajo town at the mouth of Canyon de Chelly, where we stay the night. Lunch is sit-down in Chinle. Canyon de Chelly National Monument is unusual: the National Park Service and the Navajo Nation manage it together, and Diné families still live and farm on the canyon floor. In the afternoon your guide drives the South Rim Drive with stops at Tsegi, Junction and White House overlooks, and we reach Spider Rock Overlook as the light lowers, with the sandstone spire standing about 230 m above the canyon floor. Dinner together in Chinle.

   Compris

   • Sunrise over the Mittens in Monument Valley
   • Sit-down lunch in Chinle
   • The South Rim Drive of Canyon de Chelly with your guide: Tsegi, Junction, White House and Spider Rock overlooks
   • Dinner in Chinle

   Option plus active : Walk down the White House Trail, about 4 km return with about 180 m of descent and climb back, the only trail into the canyon open without a Navajo guide, when it is open.

   Temps libre : Early afternoon free in Chinle

   Activité : Sunrise is optional and on your own from the terrace, a two-minute walk if we stay inside the tribal park; it is not a second guided drive.

   

5. Jour 5 : Canyon de Chelly with a Diné guide, then Gallup

   Canyon de Chelly floor, then Chinle to Ganado, Window Rock and Gallup

   • Environ 2 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Gallup
   Détail du jour 5

   Visitors may enter the floor of Canyon de Chelly only with an authorised Navajo guide, and this morning is the reason to come. We go in at about 8 am, while the sand is cool, for about three hours in the guide's 4x4 along the wash between walls that rise from a few metres at the mouth to hundreds of metres further in. Your Diné guide shows pictographs and petroglyphs, the cliff houses of First Ruin and Junction Ruin, and White House Ruin from below, and talks about the canyon as home: the farms, the orchards and the families who still live here. After a sit-down lunch in Chinle we drive south to Ganado and Hubbell Trading Post, where Navajo families have traded wool, rugs and silver since 1878, then east to Window Rock, the Navajo Nation's capital, to see the sandstone arch it is named for. We reach Gallup, just off the Navajo Nation, by about 4:30 pm, about two hours of driving in all, and settle in for two nights. The evening is free.

   Compris

   • Diné-guided tour of the Canyon de Chelly floor, about three hours
   • Sit-down lunch in Chinle
   • Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site, Ganado
   • Window Rock and the Navajo Code Talkers memorial

   Temps libre : Evening free in Gallup

   Activité : The canyon tour is in a 4x4 over sand and shallow water, with short walks. Ask before photographing people or homes in the canyon. Hubbell's rugs and jewellery are for sale, but there is no pressure to buy.

6. Jour 6 : Chaco Canyon by the south road

   Gallup to Thoreau, Highway 9 and Road 57 to Chaco Culture National Historical Park, and back to Gallup

   • Environ 4.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Gallup
   Détail du jour 6

   This is the one long driving day. Chaco's north road has been closed since storm damage on 30 September 2026, so the only way in is the south road, 34 km of dirt, and Gallup is the nearest town with hotels on that side. We leave at 6:45 am: an hour and a quarter east on the interstate and north past Crownpoint, then about an hour on the dirt road, reaching the visitor centre soon after it opens at 9 am. Chaco was the centre of the Ancestral Puebloan world between about 850 and 1150, and UNESCO listed it in 1987. Your guide walks you through Pueblo Bonito, a great house of several hundred rooms built over three centuries, then Chetro Ketl, Pueblo del Arroyo and the great kiva of Casa Rinconada, about four hours on foot with a picnic lunch, since no food is sold here. We leave at about 1:30 pm and are back in Gallup by about 4 pm. Dinner is your choice.

   Compris

   • Chaco Culture National Historical Park entry
   • Guided walks at Pueblo Bonito, Chetro Ketl, Pueblo del Arroyo and Casa Rinconada
   • Picnic lunch in the park

   Option plus facile : Stay near the visitor centre and take its short walk to Una Vida, and rejoin the group for Pueblo Bonito.

   Option plus active : The Pueblo Alto Trail, about 8 km, climbing through a crack in the cliff to the mesa top above Pueblo Bonito, in place of the Casa Rinconada walk.

   Temps libre : Evening free in Gallup

   Activité : About four and a half hours of driving, in two halves of about two and a quarter hours, with about four and a half hours at Chaco between them and a comfort stop each way. If rain or snow makes the dirt road impassable, we go to El Morro National Monument instead, with Inscription Rock and a Puebloan ruin on the mesa top.

7. Jour 7 : Pueblo culture in Albuquerque, then Santa Fe

   Gallup to the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, then Santa Fe

   • Environ 3.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Santa Fe
   Détail du jour 7

   We leave Gallup after breakfast and drive east on the interstate along the old Route 66 corridor, past red sandstone cliffs and the lava flows near Grants, about two and a quarter hours to Albuquerque. The Indian Pueblo Cultural Center is owned and run by New Mexico's 19 Pueblos, and its museum tells their story in their own words, from Chaco's descendants to the present, with murals by Pueblo artists in the courtyard and, on many weekends, traditional dances. After a sit-down lunch at the centre we drive about an hour north to Santa Fe, arriving by mid-afternoon. The rest of the afternoon is yours: Canyon Road's galleries, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture on Museum Hill, or a rest after a week on the road. In the evening we meet for a farewell dinner in town. Driving today is about three and a half hours, split in two by the cultural centre.

   Compris

   • Indian Pueblo Cultural Center entry, Albuquerque
   • Sit-down lunch at the cultural centre
   • Farewell dinner in Santa Fe

   Activités en option

   • Acoma Pueblo's Sky City on the way, if the Pueblo of Acoma is running in-person tours on your date
   • Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Georgia O'Keeffe Museum or Canyon Road galleries in your free afternoon

   Temps libre : Afternoon free in Santa Fe

   Activité : Dance days at the cultural centre vary; we tell you with your final itinerary whether one falls on our day.

8. Jour 8 : Santa Fe's Plaza and home

   Santa Fe Plaza, then Albuquerque International Sunport or Santa Fe Regional Airport

   • Environ 1.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner
   Détail du jour 8

   A last walk with your guide, after a night in town, in the cool of the morning around the Plaza, laid out in the early 1600s when Santa Fe became the capital of the Spanish province of New Mexico. Under the long portal of the Palace of the Governors, Native American artists sell their own jewellery and pottery on blankets, each piece made by the seller under a programme run by the museum, so you can buy directly from the maker. From there it is a few minutes to the adobe San Miguel Chapel and the Loretto Chapel with its spiral staircase. Late in the morning we drive about an hour and a quarter south to the Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ), arriving by about 1 pm, or drop you at Santa Fe Regional Airport (SAF), about 20 minutes from the Plaza. Your guide checks your flight before saying goodbye.

   Compris

   • Walk around the Santa Fe Plaza with your guide: the Palace of the Governors portal, San Miguel Chapel and Loretto Chapel
   • Drop-off at Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ) or Santa Fe Regional Airport (SAF)

   Activité : Book a flight from Albuquerque leaving after about 3 pm, or from Santa Fe after about 1 pm.

Faune et météo : Days are hot and dry in June, and from July to September afternoon storms can make the dirt road to Chaco impassable and fill Canyon de Chelly's washes, so we start early and keep a backup plan for each.

• Durango2 nuits
• Monument Valley1 nuit
• Chinle1 nuit
• Gallup2 nuits
• Santa Fe1 nuit