Saturday started off with yet another great breakfast spread courtesy of our wagonmaster(s) David & Nicole Guhsé. They’re still on track to receive an A+ grade for their performance so far 🙂
Our rally schedule for the day called for “no organized day time activity” until our Dinner Cruise aboard the Canyon Princess at 5 PM. Agenda below:
However, before we did nothing for the day – we set up an impromptu “GearHead Session” after breakfast.
A “GearHead Session” is simply a forum for members to discuss anything related to our beloved Alpines – usually of a mechanical nature. There is a always a wealth of information to be gleaned from our members. Subjects discussed during the session included, but were not limited to; tow bars, tow bar breakaway switches, receiver hitches, dual-pane window fogging, lubricants and sprays for steps & slideouts, water tank dump valves, and more. It was a good session.
The rest of the day was pretty much a hang around do-nothing day that I used to finish up yesterday’s blog post.
At 4:30 PM all the Alpiners headed over to the Marina to get ready for our scheduled dinner cruise.
A couple of our members showed up in the exact same shirt which got a good laugh.
We hung around in the Lodge lobby until it was time to go down to the dock.
That’s our ship on the lower left in the picture below.
Some of us took the courtesy tram down to the ship…
while others walked down…
and here she is – the Canyon Princess: The website says the following about this tour: While relaxing aboard the Canyon Princess, you will enjoy the breathtaking sunset on Lake Powell. This dinner cruise combines spectacular Wahweap Bay scenery with a delicious dining experience. The Canyon Princess Dinner Cruise includes a delightful menu made up of salad, breads, a variety of entree options, and choice of dessert. Your favorite beverage is available for purchase at the bar. This two-hour dinner cruise aboard the Canyon Princess is sure to provide you with special memories of your trip to Lake Powell.
We boarded the ship for our two-hour tour… uh oh, did I say two-hour tour? Hmmmm… sounds familiar somehow 🙂
Lots of carp and some stripers were hanging out around the dock.
We were all seated in the dining area and pretty much had the entire boat to ourselves except for a few other couples.
Our menu:
The dinner was great!
Now – enjoy some pictures of our evening dinner cruise:
We returned to the dock all too soon. It was an awesome evening!
Back at the campground we walked around the campground loop with little dog “Coach” and stopped to admire Greg & Marcy Vaughan’s light show…
It was a warm and pleasant evening. Later, we hung out with a small gathering of our Alpine friends outside one of the Coaches until it was time to call it a night.
Check back tomorrow for a recap of Rally Day 5 which includes a tour of Glen Canyon Dam.
Thursday was Day 3 of the Alpine SoCal Rally at Lake Powell and it started off with another awesome breakfast served by our Wagon master(s) David & Nicole Guhsé! Stilla and I got up early and went over to the get-together site to help set things up. Breakfast was a home-run and went off without a hitch thanks to the rally team.
After breakfast we had our Alpine SoCal Member meeting consisting of the usual stuff; old business, new business, future rally dates, etc., and then we voted on the nominations for our officers which was a no-brainer because all the leadership positions, except for the president, would be filled by incumbents that (as-always) have been doing an excellent job.
And now for the big news: Since our current SoCal Chapter President (Joe Darling) has been experiencing some health issues including a recent back surgery, 🙁 he is unable to continue in this role.
Get well soon Joe!
Therefore the nominating committee contacted members recently to find someone to fill the position. Of course, no one can replace Joe – only follow in his footsteps. I kept it to myself until now, but I was nominated and it was voted on in this morning’s meeting. I will take over Joes’s duties beginning January 1st. I am humbled by the chapter members confidence in me and hope I can live up to expectations and Joe’s legacy.
After all the meeting fuss was over, 🙂 Stilla and I took little dog “Coach” in the SIlverado and we went for a day-trip since today was a “free day” until our scheduled “La Familia Spaghetti Dinner”.
We drove back out towards the South Entrance of the Lake Powell Resort & Marina and stopped at some of the scenic viewpoints:
We exited the Resort & Marina area and headed back through Page…
Sign as you exit the South Entrance to the Lake Powell Resort & Marina (we turned left)
to another viewpoint at Scenic View Road:
We parked and walked down to the view point:
After negotiating the many slippery steps, we got a good view of the Glen Canyon Dam and the bridge.
Wish we could be in that boat (below) 🙂
We walked back up the path / steps to the parking lot.
In the parking lot, we met this nice couple from Germany. They are traveling around the US and even plan on going down to Argentina! We talked for a bit, because as most of you know, Stilla is also from Germany. They shared their blog address with us (below) so if you’re interested, give it a look. Once again, I have to say – we get to meet the nicest people in the RV world 🙂
We moved on over to Horseshoe Bend. Here’s the view of the first part of the path from the parking lot.
And here’s the view after you get to the top of the first hill. See the little people heading down the trail to the cliff edge?
We put little “Coach” in his doggie back-pack.
Lots of tourists at the edge of the canyon.
Stilla on the edge 🙂
Horseshoe Bend.
See the little boat down there?
Wish we were in it.
Picture of us in front of famous Horseshoe Bend, courtesy of some nice asian tourists.
The sun beat down on little “Coach”, he didn’t like walking in the hot sand.
The view back down to the parking lot (below). A few buses had arrived full of Asian tourists that we shared the trail with.
We continued south on 89 to Lee’s Ferry which looks like its only a few miles straight line distance from the campground when you look at a map, but it’s 100 miles to drive. We took 89 south and then got on 89A north to get there. Here’s the view (below) coming down the mountain south of Page.
We stopped to check out the view at a turnout and Stilla browsed the Indian jewelry vendors.
At the bottom of the mountain we turned right towards Marble Canyon (sign below).
When we got close to the turn for Lee’s Ferry, we crossed Navajo Bridge.
We pulled into the Navajo Bridge Interpretive Center. Normally, I would expound on this and other locations we stopped at, but I’m pressed for time to get this blog post published, so please don’t forget to click on the links embedded in the (green-colored) text to learn more.
After Navajo Bridge, we turned on Lees Ferry Road into Marble Canyon (←link here).
We stopped and toured the campground here for future reference as we often do. Here’s the sign (below) if you’re interested in camping here. It looked like there were quite a few sites that are big-rig friendly.
We returned the same way we went in and snapped a few more pics of the cool rock formations:
And we returned to Page after about 200 miles of driving today. Here’s the view (below) coming in to Page from 89 south. It was right about this time that our Wagonmaster (David Guhsé) called and asked if we could stop by Strombolli’s Restaurant to pick up the garlic bread for our spaghetti dinner.
We rolled back into the campground (with garlic bread in hand) just in time for our “La Familia Spaghetti Dinner”.
Another awesome dinner goes off well. Everyone enjoyed the spaghetti dinner with lots of garlic bread and salads:
David even put on some “mood” music that fit the Italian theme.
We were treated to an awesome sunset as we finished our dinner:
Hope you enjoyed today’s tour… check back tomorrow for Day 4 of our Alpine SoCal Rally. Wish all you readers out there could join us 🙂
Welcome to Day 2 of the Alpine SoCal Lake Powell Rally 🙂
Warning! – Picture heavy post again today… consider viewing on a laptop or desktop computer since mobile devices often have trouble downloading the pictures. Hint: If an image doesn’t load, try refreshing your screen.
We started off our day (Thursday) with a fine Alpine breakfast…
courtesy of our wagon-master(s) David & Nicole Guhsé. Here’s David boiling up some eggs to add to the already huge spread consisting of yogurts, fruits, muffins, croissants, etc.,
Nicole put the finishing touches on the spread…
and Lorraine Foster helped prep the tables.
And then the hordes attacked 🙂
Breakfast with a view.
Some folks (below) took advantage of the limited time after breakfast to detail their Coach before our first scheduled activity of the day.
Bob & Helena Mazzocco. (Bob seems to be doing a fine job supervising) 🙂
Our agenda for the day (below) has us meeting at the Slot Canyon Office for a tour of Antelope Slot Canyon (←click link to see more).
Everyone piled into their cars for the ~10 mile drive over to the Slot Canyon Office in downtown Page for our 10 AM tour.
We got an extra treat while waiting for our tour to start with an Indian hoop dancer:
After the entertainment, we all piled into the modified pickups for an exciting drive to the canyon…
It took three of these pickups to transport our large group of Alpiners.
We drove through a long semi-dry wash to get to the entrance.
These rigs must go through a lot of springs and shock absorbers to keep them running smoothly over the rough terrain.
When we arrived at the entrance to the canyon, we all piled out of the pickups… no worse for wear and tear…
and walked to the mouth of the canyon where our driver then took over duties as tour-guide. Each group of ~12 people had their own driver / tour-guide.
We entered the canyon…
and everyone said ooh and aah numerous times…
Antelope Canyon was formed by erosion of Navajo Sandstone, primarily due to flash flooding and secondarily due to other sub-aerial processes. Rainwater, especially during monsoon season, runs into the extensive basin above the slot canyon sections, picking up speed and sand as it rushes into the narrow passageways. Over time the passageways eroded away, making the corridors deeper and smoothing hard edges in such a way as to form characteristic ‘flowing’ shapes in the rock. Click HERE to learn more about this place from my friend, Wikipedia®
Our tour-guide / driver turned out to be quite an expert on taking photos in the canyon. It didn’t seem to matter if it was an iPhone, Android, or expensive digital camera… she would take your picture-taking device and change the settings for the best picture. She even took many of the cameras or phones from people and took the pictures herself.
It’s hard to do this awe-inspiring place justice with pictures. Everyone took lots of photos (us included), here’s a sampling:
If anyone would like to see more pictures of the awesome place, simply send me a message and I can email the full-size originals.
Our tour-guide gathered us all together for a couple great pictures inside the canyon:
Alpine SoCal group in Antelope Slot Canyon. (Lake Powell, AZ)Alpine SoCal group in Antelope Slot Canyon. (Lake Powell, AZ)
We exited the canyon at the opposite end and took a short break in the sunshine while one of the Indians played a flute.
Bob & Helena Mazzocco soaking in some sun after the cool canyon.
We backtracked through the canyon to the entrance and squeezed past the many tourists that had come in behind us. Our nice guide made sure she didn’t lose any of us on the tour and saw us back into our seats for a return trip back to the office.
The rest of the day was basically ‘free time’ with no scheduled activities until we all gathered again at our campground for “Social Hour”. We had some leftover pizza and garlic bread from yesterdays dinner along with assorted snacks that folks brought over.
We closed out another fine rally day with good conversation. We also welcomed new members; Frank Krauland and Reginald & Karen Bodeux. It’s always good to get new members and important for the future health of the association in order to remain strong and viable.
I hope you enjoyed today’s tour… stay tuned for more adventure on Day 3 of our SoCal Alpine Coach – Lake Powell Rally 🙂
On Tuesday, David, Frank, and I went to Page, AZ to pick up tables and chairs for our Alpine SoCal Rally at Lake Powell. The rest of the Alpines are due to arrive today and we have pizza & salad scheduled for 5:30.
Here’s Frank and David strapping down the large round tables on the back of David’s truck.
Hope we make it without losing any…
We fitted all the chairs in the back of our Silverado. I was sure not to lose anything 🙂
Frank and I followed David (at a safe distance) to keep an eye on the load.
We went through the South Entrance to get back to the Wahweap Campground.
And we made it! Not a single table was hurt during transportation or in the production of this blog post 🙂
All set up… let the Rally begin!
We put out the “Alpine SoCal” sign on the main road to our loop to make sure no one gets lost.
We have all 26 sites in Loop C reserved for the Rally.
We also put out the “Alpine Southern California” sign in front of our get-together site to mark our territory.
Coaches arrived throughout the day:
Everyone gathered at our get-together site for Happy Hour and by 5:30 David Guhsé arrived on time with the pizza and salad. Here’s a collection of pictures I took of our Alpine Coach Association SoCal group enjoying our first evening together:
Everything went great and a good time was had by all. We even had lots of leftover pizza, salad, and garlic bread. We’ll try to save the leftover salad and freeze the garlic bread to have with our Spaghetti dinner scheduled for Friday.
We did learn a couple lessons; 1) Everyone should probably bring a light jacket or sweater because when the sun goes down it gets a little cool, and 2) If we stay until the sun goes down, (which is highly likely), we should all bring along a flashlight next time.
We got rained on pretty much all Monday night. And Tuesday morning remained soggy with intermittent showers. Every time it stopped raining, we would start to unload the bicycles and Harley, but the rain would start up again and drive us inside.
It finally began clearing up around mid-afternoon and we were able to get the bikes and the Harley off the truck. But in doing so, I wrenched my back taking the bike carrier off the truck, so I’ll have to take it easy for awhile. Now, at least, we can use the bed of the pickup to go get tables and chairs on Wednesday morning.
Otherwise – we pretty much just hung around the campground and watched some of our (day early) Alpine Rally attendees show up. We had several meet and greet sessions. It’s always fun to catch up with folks we haven’t seen in a while.
I think we have 7 Alpines in the loop now that have arrived so far… the rest will arrive today (Wednesday).
Meet Frank (below) a newcomer to the Alpine SoCal group. We stopped to get acquainted while walking the dog.
These nice folks (below) Nancy and Paul McPhillips, are in the market for a Class A Coach and did a drive-thru of our loop to check out the Alpines. They stopped to ask questions about our Coaches while Stilla and I were talking to Frank. We (Frank and I) filled them in on our opinions… of course you know we’re biased a little bit, but you might be looking at some new members if they can find an Alpine for sale 🙂
Orville & Mary Ann drove over in their Jeep from the Page, AZ Elks Lodge to scout out the sites and say Hi. You may recall them from my post a couple day ago when we were staying at the lodge. They’ll bring their Coach over today too. John & Lorraine Foster joined them for a photo op (below).
(L to R) Orville & Mary Ann, Lorraine, Stilla, and John.
(L to R) Greg & Marcy Vaughan; John Foster
John & Lorraine got lots of supervisory assistance while giving their Coach a quick-clean after coming off the road.
John & Lorraine Foster getting their Coach ready for the rally.
Several of the Rally attendees took a walk down to the marina after they got set up. The sun’s out now, the sky is blue…
Our windshield view of Lake Powell.
Once the rain stopped and the sun came out again, we got the flagpole set up and Stilla put out some of her solar lights.
So here we are… ready for Day 1 of the Alpine SoCal Lake Powell Rally 🙂
We’ll get our group site set up today with tables, chairs, etc., and we pick up Pizza for this afternoon’s social hour at 5 PM.
Monday we moved over to the Wahweap Campground at the Lake Powell Resort & Marina (lower left corner of map below) to get ready for the upcoming Alpine Coach Rally which starts on Wednesday.
We didn’t bother to hook up the Silverado behind the Coach when we left the Page, AZ Elks Lodge around noon because it was only a 10 mile trip to the Wahweap CG. It turns out this was a mistake…
Stilla followed me in the truck as I pulled up to the park checkpoint at the South Entrance. I showed the park ranger my disabled veterans access pass and told her the truck behind me was with me. She said the truck had to be hooked up to the Coach or I would have to pay $20 for the extra vehicle. Of course, I tried to reason with her – but in typical bureaucratic fashion she just said; “That’s the rule.”
I asked; “OK, so if I hook it up, then you’ll let me through with my access pass?” “Yeah,” she said, ” as long as you can do it in a couple minutes.” So, I put the Coach in neutral and pulled the parking brake, ran back to Stilla in the truck and motioned her forward so I could hook up the tow bar. I didn’t bother hooking up the umbilical cord for the lights or the safety hooks and jumped back into the Coach to get a wave-thru from the ‘kindly’ park power ranger. Really?!?
I towed the Silverado the final few miles to our campsite in Loop C.
All 26 sites of Loop C have been reserved for our Alpine Coach Rally, and as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, the host(s) aka “Wagon-masters” David & Nicole Guhsé are parked at the entrance to the loop in site 26 and we get to occupy site 24. We’ll leave the site between our two rigs (site 25) empty for our get-togethers where we’ll set up tables, chairs and some EZ-Up tents.
Site 24 in Loop C at the Wahweap CG in Lake Powell Resort & Marina.
Here’s David & Nicole’s Coach in site 26 as viewed from our site. Nice view, eh?
View down the Loop C road in the opposite direction.
We met up with David & Nicole Guhsé (our hosts for the upcoming Rally) and went down to the CG registration office together in their nice new Ford F150 pickup. David had arranged to get some “goody” bags from the resort management so we could stuff them with literature, maps, etc., to pass out to the rally attendees when they arrive on Wednesday.
Nicole & David Guhse “wagonmasters” for the Lake Powell Alpine Coach Rally.
We ended up having to go over to the other side of the resort to the administration offices near the lodge in order to track down the resort manager. She was out to lunch, so we had drinks and a snack at the finely-appointed lounge / restaurant in the lodge while we waited for her to return. This is the view from the restaurant windows overlooking the lake.
The lodge pool.
The resort manager finally showed up and gave us some really nice “goody” bags with Lake Powell and Glenn Canyon pictures printed on the sides. Now all we have to do is find some “goodies” to put in them. So we drove over to the Dam Visitor Center and got some brochures and information on the Dam Tours to add to the “goody” bags.
Here’s the dam as seen from the visitor center. We’ll come back here on Sunday for a tour.
And the dam bridge (no pun intended).
Then we drove into Page to the Museum / Visitor Center for more brochures, literature, maps, etc.,
We returned to the campground and organized the stuff we picked up and stuffed the “goody” bags. Then we spent a quiet evening in the Coach listening to the occasional raindrops hit the roof.
Today (Tuesday) we’ll pick up tables and chairs and get things set up in our get-together spot. Hopefully we’ve seen the last of the rain or a while. It’s been raining intermittently for the last two days. The weather-guessers say its supposed to be nice from here on out 🙂
Here’s our agenda for the Rally:
Only one more day to go before the fun begins… check back tomorrow to see what our Tuesday brings. 🙂
I started off our Sunday here at the Elks Lodge in Page, AZ with an early morning walk with our little dog “Coach” around the neighborhood.
Then I gave Stilla a ride over to the nearby Catholic church where she attended morning services while I spent the rest of the morning washing the Urban Escape Vehicle and the Silverado. Which means it will probably rain later, right?
At lunchtime, Mary Ann made some awesome chili, complete with garlic bread to share with us. Yumm! Thanks Mary Ann 🙂
Alpine owners and neighbors here at the Page Elks Lodge (Orville McGee & Mary Ann Ratliff)
After our awesome lunch, we took off in the Silverado to check out the town and stock up on groceries at the local WalMart. But first, we wanted to drive over to the Lake Powell Resort & Marina (about 10 miles) to check out the campground we’ll be moving to tomorrow for the Alpine Coach Rally. I knew from correspondence, that the hosts for the Rally, David & Nicole Guhse, were supposed to be arriving today.
Before driving into the campground, we pulled off at a scenic viewpoint and looked down on Lake Powell from above.
From the scenic viewpoint we could see our future campground in the distance at the edge of the lake (below).
We drove through the North Entrance to get to the campground. We passed by another entrance road earlier, (I assume it’s called the south entrance) just after going over the bridge by the dam. Both entrances have manned check-points to pay your fees. I was able to show my Disabled Veterans Access Pass for free entry.
We drove around the campground and checked out several of the loops. This place is huge, with 139 Full Hook Up sites and another 112 tent or self-contained RV spots. Click HERE and HERE for links.
Since we didn’t see our Alpine Coach Rally “hosts” anywhere in the campground, I gave Dave Guhse a call to see where they were at… it turned out David & Nicole were just a few miles away on their way in to the campground. So we waited at the registration office / general store and greeted them as they pulled in.
David & Nicole Guhse pulling in to the registration area at Lake Powell Resorts & Marina – Wahweap CG.
It started raining just as they pulled into the parking lot… I think David & Nicole brought the rain with them 🙂
After hugs and handshakes, and a quick stop inside the registration office, we went over to Loop C to help David & Nicole claim a spot.
David & Nicole Guhse’s Alpine Coach.
David & Nicole unhooked their nice, new Ford pickup and parked their Alpine in site 26. Since Stilla and I are co-hosting this rally with David & Nicole; we discussed the layout for the upcoming Rally and decided to use site 25 for our get-togethers. Stilla and I will take site 24 when we come back with our Coach tomorrow. This way, we’ll have the empty spot between our two rigs so it will be more convenient to move breakfast items over in the mornings, cater meals, set up the EZ-up tents, tables, chairs, etc.,
With that done… we followed David & Nicole back into Page to the WalMart so we could stock up. We exited Lake Powell Resorts & Marina on the entrance road that I passed up earlier and came out near the Glen Canyon Dam Bridge.
David & Nicole Guhse in front of us in their Ford pickup going across the Glen Canyon Dam bridge.
We parted ways with David & Nicole at WalMart. Stilla and I returned to the Elks Lodge with our groceries. We brought back some Granny Apples for Mary Ann Ratliff (per her earlier request) and she made an apple pie. She delivered half the pie to our Coach just in time for dessert. It was awesome 🙂 I can’t remember a better apple pie… Thanks Mary Ann!
Today (Monday) we pack up to make the short trip over to the Wahweap Campground to get ready for the Alpine Coach Rally which officially starts on the 7th, but I’m sure we’ll have some other early arrivals. Stay tuned for Alpine fun…
PS It’s rained off and on last night… nothing too hard, just infrequent showers and now it’s raining lightly again this morning as I go to publication with this posting. We’re supposed to have nice weather again beginning Wednesday according to my iPhone weather app… just in time for the Rally 🙂
229 mile travel day from Farmington NM to Page AZ.
It seems that today was the big parade for the Northern Navajo Nation Fair which is an annual event. According to their website; “The Shiprock Northern Navajo Nation Fair is the the Oldest and Most Traditional of the Navajo Fairs. It is held each fall (1-4 October) in the Navajo Land where the Navajo people of the Four Corners come to celebrate the year’s harvest with a community celebration.”
Now, all this wouldn’t be so bad, except the nice bartender at the Farmington Elks Lodge even warned us about this event when we shared our travel plans the day before, but I figured; “How bad could it be?” And we didn’t try an alternate route. One of these days I’ll learn to listen to people 😐 Oh well, I just kept reminding myself that I was retired and that seemed to make it better 🙂
The traffic moved so slowly, that Stilla was even able to walk the dog while we rolled down the street.
Some of the local kids sold drinks to the grid-locked motorists.
Mural on the wall claiming Shiprock to be the Capital of the World.
We finally made it to the other side of town around 2 PM and were able to clear the traffic and head northwest out of town.
View of Shiprock. (Wikipedia link HERE and more Google Images HERE).
The route we took was simply awesome, with stunning views and rock formations galore. Follow along:
Here’s the view as we got closer to Page, AZ:
Lake Powell in the background (below):
When we finally pulled into Elks Lodge 2498 in Page, AZ we saw another Alpine Coach in the parking lot! Meet Orville McGee & Mary Ann Ratliff 🙂
They’ll be attending the Alpine Coach Rally as well 🙂 I took a picture of them in front of our Coaches after Stilla parked. Yup, that’s what I said – Stilla backed the Urban Escape Vehicle (UEV) into the open spot next to their Coach while I ground-guided. She did a great job! We strategically parked nose to nose so we could maximize the available space with the tight RV sites here.
Orville snapped a (rare) picture of the two of us in front of the UEV.
We got set up in our spot, you know – the usual stuff; jacks down, slides out, satellite dish up, rolled out the throw rugs, unfolded the coffee table, put out a couple lawn chairs, etc.,
Then we went into the lodge with Orville and Mary Ann. The Grand Exalted Ruler (GER) “Bill” greeted us at the door and introduced us to all the lodge members. He also presented us with a lodge pin. Pretty cool.
The lodge was having an auction and raffle. Lots of activity going on! We had a couple adult beverages. When we went back to the bar for our second drink, we found out this lodge doesn’t offer a free second drink to visiting members as is customary in most other lodges we’ve visited.
Also, The Elks website says the sites are $15 per night, but when we went to pay, we were told it’s $20 per night. And, oh by-the-way; we’re on 30 Amp, not 50 as the website touted. Oh well, at least it’s good 30 Amp power unlike our last spot at the Farmington Lodge where we had low voltage and couldn’t run one of the air conditioners.
Auction time at the Page AZ Elks Lodge. The picture the auctioneer is holding up is of Antelope Canyon (a local attraction).
Orville & Mary Ann at the Page, AZ Elks Lodge.
Here’s an early morning view of the Elks Lodge I took while walking little “Coach”:
This view (below) shows the RV parking spots next to the lodge:
And here’s our morning view from the (currently) empty spots next to us:
We’ll spend a couple nights here at the Elks Lodge and then move over (Monday) to the Lake Powell Alpine Coach Rally to the Wahweap RV Park & Campground. The Rally officially starts on Wednesday (7 Oct), but we reserved a couple days early so we can help (hosts) David & Nicole Guhse get everything set up.
Stay tuned…
PS The dash air conditioner is still working great. Thanks again Mike! And also, no more squeaks and rattles… it seems I got them all worked out (for now). I blogged about fixing the squeaks and rattles in previous posts; (HERE) and (HERE).
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.
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.
Here’s the view(s) from one of the viewpoints about halfway to the campground:
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 🙂
We stopped at most of the scenic viewpoints. But sometimes we didn’t even get out of the truck due to the high winds.
This viewpoint is called Castle Rock Overlook…
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 🙁
Here’s what the Rand McNally RVND™ 7720 GPS displayed after we turned around at the campground loop and headed back out.
We drove back to the Elks Lodge. Here’s a view of the steep entrance to the Farmington Elks Lodge.
And we’re back from another day’s adventure.
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 🙂
I was tempted to go straight north from Santa Fe on US-84 towards the town of Chama and then take US-64 west, but I talked to someone who told me that route might not be the best for a large RV. So at the last moment, we decided to take US-550 which turned out to be an awesome route. Thanks for the tip Biff!
We stopped at the Apache Nugget Travel Center & Casino (near Cuba) along the way to top off the diesel tank with 78 gallons for $188. That’s the best price I can remember paying for diesel since we started full-timing 🙂
The Elks Lodge in Farmington is at the top of a hill overlooking the police station, and not unlike the lodge in Santa Fe – there were no signs to the RV lot 🙁 We had to pull into a parking lot at the bottom of the hill to unhook the Silverado so we could scout out the best access… the turns were tight and parked cars in the adjacent lots made it difficult.
And here we are… $15 per night for 30 Amp power and water hookups. No sewer though. And the 30 Amp power is a little ‘iffy’… it waivers between 105 and 113 volts and if we turn on one of the air conditioners it drops down to 103 or 104 volts. The Coach’s power monitor displays “Lo Power” and disconnects. I talked to our neighbor, but he says his power is good. Maybe it’s just our pedestal. I don’t want to move. We’ll just have to “rough-it” I guess, and we’ll take little Coach with us in the truck if we go anywhere.
We went into the huge lodge to pay for our site and ended up having tacos and wings for dinner. This is probably the largest lodge we’ve visited to date. Very friendly folks here and our second drinks were free per Elks Lodge custom.
Main entrance of Elks Lodge 1747 as viewed from the inside lobby at the top of the stairs.Bar area of Elks Lodge 1747.Game room at Elks Lodge 1747.
Thursday was another full day of sight-seeing and picture taking… We checked out a couple of the pueblo indian sites (ruins) and went over to Navajo Lake. So follow along…
Our first stop on Thursday was Salmon Ruins(←click link). We took our little dog “Coach” along for the day and found out this place is dog-friendly 🙂
We paid an $8 entrance fee for the two of us with military discount.
The visitor center didn’t have a theater but offered a nice interactive video display that described the site.
We were given an illustrated trail guide in paper format to take along with us on our self-guided tour.
We walked out the back door of the visitor center and down the path to Heritage Park which is a series of connected pathways that join reconstructed buildings that represent the different house types of the peoples and cultures of New Mexico from prehistoric through early historic times.
The website describes it so; “The exit near the Gift Shop brings visitors onto a shaded deck, the first of many picnic areas, and the start of a paved trail down the hillside to access the outdoor areas of the site: Heritage Park, the Salmon Family Homestead, and of course, the Chacoan outlier known as Salmon Ruins.”
This is the view back up to the visitor center from the Heritage Park below.
Follow along on our walking tour:
Reconstructed Pithouse.
Old Trading Post.The old Salmon homestead.Bunkhouse.Old homestead ‘relics’ on display in front of the bunkhouse.
After our walk through Heritage Park, we got to the ruins themselves…
The picture (below) from the illustrated guide book we were given at the visitors center depicts how the same building (shown in my picture above) used to look in the early 1900’s.
And this picture (above) is also illustrated once again in the following picture from the guidebook. It describes how the sun lines up on the altar during the solstice which I found interesting.
One of the many Kiva’s:
After our tour of the Salmon Ruins, we drove the 13 miles to the Aztec Ruins.
The Aztec Ruins (←link here) visitors center (below).
We parked in front of the visitors center in what little shade we could find. I also put the cover on the Harley which I try to do often whenever we park for any length of time.
This site (Aztec Ruins) is a national monument, unlike the previous site we just visited (Salmon Ruins) which is owned by the San Juan County government, and managed by the San Juan County Museum Association, an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. What all this means is that they’re not dog-friendly, so we had to leave little Coach in the truck with the windows down. I don’t think we’ve come across a single national park or monument in our travels yet that is dog-friendly 🙁 The one “good” thing about this being a “national” monument is that I was able to use my disabled veteran access pass to get us in at no cost.
We toured the visitors center quickly…
and watched a 16 minute video in the mini-theater…
This visitors center also had an interactive monitor that described the site, just like the one at Salmon Ruins.
We were also given an illustrated guide book (just like at Salmon Ruins) to take along with us on a self-guided walking tour. But this guide was fancier than the one at Salmon Ruins, it was plastic coated and spiral-bound.
The Great Kiva at Aztec West (pic above and below) is the third largest kiva ever excavated. It was reconstructed by archeologist Earl Morris in 1934.
The AmericanSouthwest.net website (←link here) gives the best description of these ruins (in my opinion) and is well worth the read.
This mat of willows sewn with yucca cord (below) is over 800 years old.
The picture (above) is illustrated in the guidebook (below).
This is one of the very few ruin sites that still have intact roofs… we went (hunched over) through quite a few doorways in the dark.
View of the mysterious green stripe of greywacke stone along the western wall of Aztec West.
A couple more views of the plaza and ruins:
View of the visitor center (back-side) as seen from the ruins.
We breezed through the ruins quickly because it was hot and we had little Coach waiting for us. He was happy to be out of the truck. Here he is enjoying some shade.
We continued on our tour of the area… since we were only 27 miles from Navajo Lake State Park, we plugged it into the GPS. I remembered to take the Rand McNally RVND™ 7720 from the Coach this time.
We took scenic Hwy 173 west…
until we arrived at the bottom of the dam.
According to Wikipedia®: “The Navajo Dam is 402 feet (123 m) high and 3,648 feet (1,112 m) long. Its crest is at an elevation of 6,108 feet (1,862 m).[4] The reservoir formed behind the dam, Navajo Lake, is 35 miles (56 km) long and stores 1,708,600 acre feet (2.1075 km3) of water. The dam has one spillway, an ungated concrete chute capable of discharging 34,000 cubic feet per second.”
We drove up to the top of the dam…
and stopped at the top…
to view the spillway…
Top of the spillway at Navajo Dam.Spillway at the top of Navajo Dam (looking towards lake)
Views of Navajo Lake:
We drove over to the state park. The Navajo Lake State Park website says; “Navajo Lake is the second largest lake in the state, with multiple campgrounds, two marinas, and two boat docks. Navajo is a haven for boaters of every stripe – motorized boaters, canoers, kayakers, water skiers and sailors.”
We checked out the campground for future reference. Here’s the fees:
And here’s the campground loops:
Most of the sites seemed pretty small. We’d be hard-pressed to fit the Urban Escape Vehicle in here.
The visitors center was closed. A mobile trailer is performing temporary duty.
We drove over the top of the dam…
and continued on back towards Farmington on a different route. We took Hwy 511 towards the town of Blanco.
Just after the dam, we passed the Elks Recreation Area sign. We heard that the Farmington Elks had a recreation area / campground here…
from this sign (below) that was posted on the bulletin board back at the lodge.
Unfortunately, it was getting late and the Elks Recreation area was still a couple miles down a dirt road, so we decided to leave it for another time.
We made it back to the Elks Lodge in time for an excellent prime rib dinner and called it a night.
On Friday, we drove around town some more and then went over to Angel Peak(←link here). But let me update you on that in my next post. We plan on moving to Page, AZ today (Saturday) to get ready for the upcoming Alpine Coach Rally. Stay tuned…
