Cruising towards the end of 2025 found me camped within northern New Mexico’s Angel Peak Badlands as a result of the government shutdown which resulted in the closing of Chaco Culture National Historical Park. The park closure came as a surprise when I pulled into a gas station to fill up before heading down the dirt road to the park. Asking about road conditions to the park, the gas station manager said a gate was closed across the road. Uh Oh! Consequently, the lack of access to the park required an instant change of plans.
Pulling out the topo map a potential alternative location to camp that night was 0nly about 30 miles northward, right off the same highway. Worth a shot, I thought. A short drive later, a nicely graded dirt road led directly to an overlook at the edge of a deep sandstone canyon. There, the most prominent feature a few air miles away is aptly named Castle Rock. Wow. Sandwiched between Castle Rock’s hoodoos in the distance beyond is the area’s namesake.
A few short miles further down the main road gets me to a campsite at a trailhead. Good. This will do nicely, I thought. That decision turned out to be a really good one.
Angel Peak Badlands is a lot like Grand Canyon National Park on a smaller scale but nonetheless impressive. If my guess is correct it just doesn’t invite the throngs of people GCNP gets every year because it is less recognized and a bit off the beaten track. That is a good thing because there are uncountable numbers of outstanding pictures of Grand Canyon already. In a way then, much less frequented Angel Peak Badlands offers myriad new opportunities for inspiration.
The great thing about being a nomadic photographer is finding yourself in unfamiliar places where everything is new. Automatically, a photographer’s photo eyes instantly look everywhere for the next shot all the while thinking about possible vantage points while simultaneously pondering what time of day sunlight will be optimal for every new previsualized image possible within the short morning and evening time frame sunlight is most flattering. I won’t go into the thoughts that went through my head while planing to make the images you see below but leave it to your imagination to decide how you might approach the same mindset. Have fun!
