Visitors who drive up to an ordinary access road off Route 160 near the Colorado-New Mexico border are expecting to see two other states: Arizona and Utah. But disappointment is common these days because of a simple sign:
“Closed Due to Construction.”
“What amounts for most tourists to a wait in line followed by a photo-opportunity star turn — standing in the exact geometric corner point, typically, or splayed with a limb in each state — was denied by chain link,” says the New York Times.
“Frustration, confusion, and for some, the punch line of a very funny joke, played out over and over again for visitors to Four Corners Monument,” the report added.
They had come from as far away as England.
Many had detoured hundreds of miles for the fleeting sensation of being in more than one place at once — this being the only spot in the nation, or perhaps the universe, where that is possible.
Disappointed people climbed from their cars, scratching their heads.
“They can’t do this!” and “Oh, no,” were typical comments of disappointed visitors.
By David Wilkening
