How to Ruin a Beautiful Drive

I had eight hours of Colorado splendor ahead of me. Why not press "play" on an audio book, to help pass the time? WRITTEN AND ILLUSTRATED by PETER MOORE

MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK is 430 miles from my home. But that’s where the annular eclipse was visible last weekend, so that’s where I drove.

And drove.

And drove.

I watched the sun go away then—whew!—come back. I climbed around ancient ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings. And I violated federal laws on cannabis use. (National Parks are federal land, where…