Angel Peak (Elks Lodge 1747 – Farmington, NM)

I said in my last post that we drove around town on Friday and then went south to check out another local scenic attraction; Angel Peak (←click link for google images).

Before we went to Angel Peak, we spent a little time running around downtown Farmington looking for an ATM that didn’t charge fees and scouting out a couple potential dump stations to use on our way out of here.  We were successful on the first mission (ATM) but not on the dump station because they all seemed to be in the wrong direction and/or they were not easily accessible.  We decided to wait until we get to Page, AZ to dump unless something turns up along our route.  Oh, and we also stopped at Burger King for a quick lunch and we went into a local RV supply store to see what they had. I’m running low on slide-out lubricant, but the store didn’t have anything that I liked.

Angel Peak is indicated on the  map (below) by the yellow arrow.  The turn-off is about 15 miles south of Bloomfield on US-550.  We passed this attraction on our way here from Santa Fe last Wednesday but didn’t stop.

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The BLM website says the following about Angel Peak Scenic Area:  Angel Peak Scenic Area, located about 30 miles southeast of Farmington, offers more than 10,000 acres of rugged terrain recognized for its scenic and scientific wonders. The nearly 7,000-foot Angel Peak, a landmark composed of river deposited sandstone from the San Jose Formation, is visible for miles in any direction. However, the banded colors of the badlands and the deep sculpted fingers of the canyon at the base of Angel Peak are only fully revealed to those who make the short journey along the rim.

It’s only a short drive off US-550 on County Road 7175 on a well-maintained gravel road to the first scenic overlook.  But you have to travel another 6 miles to get to the campground.

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Here’s the view(s) from one of the viewpoints about halfway to the campground:

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We made it to the campground loop.  Great views but, wow – was it ever windy!  We’ve had great weather every day since we left Colorado Springs… so one day with gusty winds won’t make us complain too much 🙂

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We stopped at most of the scenic viewpoints.  But sometimes we didn’t even get out of the truck due to the high winds.

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This viewpoint is called Castle Rock Overlook…

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There’s even a well-placed bench on a trail that can be used to sit and ponder the meaning of life or whatever while you enjoy the scenery…  But for us, it was too windy – poor little Coach might get blown away 🙁

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Here’s what the Rand McNally RVND™ 7720 GPS displayed after we turned around at the campground loop and headed back out.

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We drove back to the Elks Lodge.  Here’s a view of the steep entrance to the Farmington Elks Lodge.

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And we’re back from another day’s adventure.

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We enjoyed another great dinner (filet-mignon) at the well-appointed lodge dining room and then hung out in the bar area to use the free Wi-Fi to upload and edit all the pictures for my last post.  My Verizon JetPack MiFi plan is 20GB for $100 and we had used it all up this month a couple days ago.  It resets again on the 2nd, but I wanted to get the post done before we headed to Lake Powell so I took advantage of the Elks free WiFi.  Thanks Elks Lodge 1747!

Time to close this post out and get packed up for travel to Page, AZ.  We have our eye on the Elks Lodge there which is supposed to have 5 RV spots with full hook-ups (50 Amp).  Hopefully there’s still one available, we didn’t call ahead yet.  Their website says they have plenty of dry camping though.  Check back soon… we’re looking forward to the Alpine Coach Rally which starts on the 7th.  I’ll post again from Page, AZ 🙂