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Huge post, so take your "tl;dr" ass back the way it came if you're not down to scroll/read/look for a while - and then click back when you are.
I just got home Friday night from 6 days in the desert, spent with a camera and laptop but no wifi or phone. It was glorious. I went back to places I'd found before, and stopped at some new ones off highways and local roads. Some of my favorite pictures weren't urbex related, so if you want to hear more my enthusiastic rantings about wildlife you can message me. I downloaded RawTherapee, so I'm re-learning how to edit with it - used to know Photoshop, back when it was a CD that you paid for only once, dammit. And as is my theme these days, I'm adjusting to using a new and better camera. It's a lot better than my last, but still not the best. Lenses are a fun pain to play (did I misspell pay? $hit) with. I'm not looking for photography advice yet, because every time I go out to shoot or sit down to edit I figure out answers to my questions, and I'm taking a filler class this term to qualify for grants that happens to be photography.
Story is in the captions above each. Hope you enjoy!
On the way out to our cabin, I saw this here Mo'el. Heh, Mo'el. There are so many nicknames to give it because the place had character despite how hard it's been scrapped and fucked with - but Mo'el was what I called it first, and it's what stuck.
Foxes and birds (I spooked a rock wren pair in one room) are currently squatting the Mo'el.
There was some graffiti out front that said "Skate or Leave" but the pool is too full of trash for that to happen.
Office/lounge of the Mo'el was mostly boring, but I was excited about the purple window tint.
Across the street from the Mo'el was a dead truck stop. It was less vandalized overall, and actually had some pretty paint inside. I know we don't condone vandalism of any kind, but I love art, and my personal preference is to visit places that are beat up to a small extent; I just have no interest in doing the beating. I love, for example, this:
(shot from the backside)
Snow melt was an blessing and a curse the whole trip.
I swear, I'm not
We pulled over again to see some hunks of train trash that were being cleared out.
Contractors were dismantling & hauling away the metal, so I didn't get to play on them, but it was cool enough of a view from the legal side of the fence.
I was taking pictures of the car above when I found some uncommon roadkill: belted kingfisher. I like dead things and I love photographing them (or poking them with sticks, or cleaning them for display), but waste like this breaks my fuckin heart at the same time.
This is old mining equipment that I just about slapped myself when I found it on Google Maps while scribbling down directions to my favorite cemetery. (Like I said, low tech.) I'd been on this road in 2017 and I did not recall even seeing it! Finally, check-fucking-mark!
My favorite shot of the cable housing ended up being taken from the outside.
Core samples!
(There were none.)
I loved the colors in this rusty doorframe.
Smoke damage: industrial
Smoke damage: residential
It bothers me endlessly that I didn't get the bottom of the front bottle in this picture, and that I used my wide angle. Oh well, I'm in Oregon now, not New Mexico. Still like the colors.
In case you were concerned, it looked like fire was the reason this house became abandoned. The smoke on the walls says everything was in place when it happened. Sad, but at least it wasn't arson. (Damn, I hope it wasn't arson that made these people leave!)
Welcome to Fort Porch-Chaos! This is the vacant upstairs of a coyote's sleeping place. At least that's what the paw prints in the snow at the basement door said. We heard and saw a lot of them during our stay.
And finally, I hung out at the graveyard again. I don't know if it's technically listed as abandoned (if you know of the registry that apparently exists, message me and we can sort it out), but it seems like the only maintainance done is by families with loved ones there. A lot of the headstones were poorly made in the first place; this was never a wealthy area. It's a working class mining community of mainly Latinos to this day - the population range continues to shift to accomidate the expanding mines, hence the bandos from the "Historic Townsite" and beyond.
I could only have gotten a not-crooked photo if I'd stepped on the grave at this one, but I liked the tiles.
Catholic folk art is so great. lol
I'll be back next year, for spring break, hopefully. I have the time and money for one or two trips every year, and NM always draws me, but I wilt in the heat of summer. More adventures to come when I'm there again!
[last edit 1/6/2019 5:45 PM by corvidcache - edited 1 times]
The #1 rule about poking things with sticks is never use your finger. | |
Very cool. Such a different pace from the things I've seen in Alaska or East Coast. Some really cool shots in the mix. Love your write up too 
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Seeing smoke damage on walls like that always kind of reminds me of the shadows left behind after a nuclear blast. Very cool content and composure.
Ric
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