Abandoned – Page 3 – Ken's Photography and Travel Blog

Rural Decay and Photography

The first day’s drive towards home was long and I had taken considerable time in the morning, stopping to shoot images in route between Hotchkiss and Gunnison. I could not spare much more time for in route photo stops, but I knew there were a number of abandoned structures along the remaining route that I might want to stop to photograph, if conditions were suitable.

I’ve driven past this abandoned country church many times. I always wanted to photograph it, but usually it was mid-day, with harsh light and clear sky, when I was passing by. It was maybe mid-afternoon when I spotted it today, the light was not great, but at least there were big, fluffy clouds to add interest in the sky. I decided today was maybe the best conditions that I would ever have to photograph here.

There is another small town in New Mexico with numerous abandoned structures, where I have stopped a couple of times to photograph, usually under harsh mid-day light. Today it was late day, just before sunset, when I was in that neighborhood, so I had to stop to see what I could do with more favorable light.

I think these are the best photos of these abandoned schools that I have gotten to date. It was just a matter of fortunate timing to be here as the sun was setting.

A few miles down the road, we noted a full, golden moon on the horizon. If I had only hung around that small town, I might have had opportunities to get photos of those old abandoned structures with the golden moon in the shots. We still had a few miles to our night’s lodging and in our haste to get there, I had again blown a good photographic opportunity, one that I will probably never have again.

Until next time,

Ken

Abandoned Truck in Colorado Mountains

After photographing an abandoned mine mill near Animas Forks, CO, we drove back along a 4 wheel drive road towards Animas Forks, keeping an eye out for an abandoned truck we had been told about.

We soon spotted the truck a short distance up a spur road.

Wildflowers and clouds seem to be trying to comfort this old, rusting, abandoned truck in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains.

Later,

Ken

Old Mill

Determined to find an old abandoned truck, that we had been told about, along a 4 wheel drive road, we continued on past Animas Forks.

We had been told that the old truck was just beside the road about a quarter of a mile past Animas Forks. Yet we drove much farther than a quarter of a mile, passing the old mill we had been told about, too.

At some point past the old, abandoned mill, we decided that we had either missed the truck or that it was much farther along the roadway than we had been told. We turned back and stopped to photograph the old mill. As I was getting my camera out, the retired photographer, who had told us about the truck, drove up and informed me that he had been mistaken about the abandoned truck being right next to the road. Instead, it was up on a hill at the end of a short spur road. He even pointed to the truck that was barely visible in the distance.

I shot a few photos of the old mill, before back tracking to the old truck.

Next abandoned truck,

Ken

Silverton, Colorado, August 2022

Silverton, Colorado is a picturesque old town nestled below Rocky Mountain peaks along U.S. 550 between Durango and Ouray. Silverton originated during mining boom times in the nearby mountains and was a rowdy place of saloons and bawdy houses, where the miners came to spend their wages, earned by their hard toiling in the mines.

It is now a major tourist attraction with lots of art galleries, antique shops, souvenir shops of all sorts and numerous restaurants and eating places to choose from. Nothing here is inexpensive, food or otherwise.

When we decided it was time to have lunch, most of the restaurants were crowded, including the limited outdoor seating, which we required, since we were traveling with a miniature labradoodle.

We ended up purchasing sandwiches from a food truck that had picnic tables and umbrellas for shade. The sandwiches were tasty. In talking to the lady working in the food truck, we discovered she and the food truck were from East Texas not so far from our home base. They trailer the food truck to Silverton for the tourist season, live in an RV, then back to Texas in the winter months. There were lots of Texans in Colorado. No doubt fleeing the excessively hot and dry summer in Texas this year.

Next up a spur of the moment decision to take a 4 wheel drive road to the ghost town of Animas Forks.

Let’s hope we don’t end up like this rusty truck in a Silverton alleyway.

Until then,

Ken

Rural Decay and Miscellaneous Photos – March 2022 Travel

Small, rural towns across the U.S have experienced dramatic economic downturns as the agrarian industry evolved from one that required much manpower to one that relied more upon mechanization (machine labor).

I see much evidence of this in my road trips, occasionally taking time to photograph the abandoned businesses and homes, either in small rural towns or those scattered across rural farm and ranch lands.

The title for this photo is taken from the street number that is hanging upside down on the post to the left of the door.

In spite of the obvious economic hardship indicated by numerous abandoned homes and businesses in one small community, this old school seem to be well cared for.

Old farm machinery rusting away in this farm field, may have been some of the initial machines that started the economic downturn in this small community.

This lone tree in a vast, post harvest farm field, beneath the wide open sky caused me to pull over for a photo.

Until the next adventure and/or desperate need to photograph something overcomes me,

Ken

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 23 – Abandoned Drilling Rig and Scouting Photography

Heading northwards along a dirt road in the northern portion of Capitol Reef National Park (actually, this is probably outside the park boundary, maybe on private land or BLM public land), is this abandoned drilling rig. I think it was a water well rig. It reminds me of the old cable tool rigs used in the very early days of oil well drilling, with its wooden mast and wooden flywheel.

The old truck body has been used as an artist canvas and for target shooting by someone or someones.

There was a watering facility near this old rig for a local cattle herd. Some of the cattle watched me as I watched them to be sure none of them took exception to my presence.

One never knows what one might find in the great open spaces of the western U.S.

Desert Overlook, Capitol Reef National Park, iPhone Photo

Painted Hills, Capitol Reef National Park, iPhone Photo

Thanks for following,

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 6

A few days into our fall 2021 visit to Indiana, the fall colors had still not progressed very much; but I was restless and needed to get out to explore the area. By doing so, I might find areas to visit later, when the colors were better.

After consulting a map of the local area, I decided to head to Monroe Lake State Park, southeast of Bloomington.

My base was just south of Brown County State Park (the red rectangle in the upper right corner). The quickest route to Monroe Lake would be into Nashville, then west on US 46 towards Bloomington, but I had traveled that route numerous times already and I wanted to check out the backroads, so I meandered through the countryside farmland and forest, approaching Lake Monroe from the south, crossing the causeway into Paynetown.

I can’t recall the exact route that I took and I doubt that I could duplicate it even if I wanted to. Many county backroads were involved. I drove through a number of small communities, some that were little more than a few houses at crossroads.

Along the way, I found a small, abandoned country store and stopped to get a few photos.

This photo shows some fall color, but it is still not fully developed.

I had hoped there would be scenic views from the long causeway over Monroe Lake, but that was a disappointment. There were no places to stop on the causeway, so I could not have gotten any photos from there, anyway.

Arriving at the state park entrance, I paid the entry fee and drove to a large parking lot at a boat launch area. The lot was mostly empty. I walked a path towards a floating boat dock and noted that there were many geese on the shore across the inlet. So I returned to my vehicle and put on my 80-400mm lens with a 1.4 extension.

I returned to the boat dock and shot numerous images of the geese, but I was still too far away to get really good images. A group of geese swam from the shore across the inlet to the boat launch area, where I shot a few more images.

I could not get too close to the geese, as they would move away as I got too close. I thought it interesting how they seemed to follow a leader along the roadway at the boat launch. I cropped the image above from one of my shots.

I drove around the rest of the park afterwards, but did not see anything else I wanted to photograph today. There were only a few people in the park, but I expect this is a popular place in the warmer months. I noted there were a number of hiking trails in the forest and this is probably a good place for a forest hike, if I return later.

I explored a side road into the Hoosier National Forest off of my return route, but cut my exploration short, since I was low on gasoline and there were no filling stations along my backcountry route.

Until next time,

Ken

Homeward Bound, Quitaque and Turkey, Texas, July 2021

The last leg of my homeward bound journey from the Grand Canyon North Rim began in Palo Duro Canyon. I chose not to take the fastest route, which would have been north then east to US 287 at Claude, Texas; but rather to go south on I-27 to Tulia, Texas, then east on US 86, back through Quitaque and Turkey, since I wanted to get a few more photos along that route.

I had driven past this interesting looking abandoned house on my way to Arizona, but had not taken time to stop. I actually passed it up again, then decided to turn back and photograph it.

This appears to have been a substantial home for someone at one time.

Old Mobil Gasoline Pump, Quitaque, Texas

I stopped again in Quitaque, Texas to capture a few more images of the old Mobil gasoline station on the main route through this small Texas town.

This original Mobil station is now an antique store. I had planned to look into this store again at a item I was thinking of purchasing as a gift for my wife, but the store was closed for a funeral. I back tracked a short distance, planning on killing some time at an interesting looking coffee shop/restaurant in downtown, but it was also closed. So after waiting around for awhile and no one returning to the store a while after the time shown on the sign in the window, I decided I had to get back on the road.

An early Phillips 66 station, Turkey, Texas

A few miles down the highway, I stopped to get a few photos in Turkey, Texas. This early Phillips 66 station is, as proclaimed by a plaque nearby, the first in Texas and appears to be well maintained. This image was chosen for Flickr’s Explore page. (Hey, Flickr, I’ve got much better photographs. If only Flickr would respond like Alexa).

Phillips 66 pumps and Bob Wills’ Tour Bus, Turkey, Texas

Next to the Phillips 66 station is an old tour bus that was used by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. Turkey claims to be the birthplace of Bob Wills.

Looks like there might still be air service for automobile tires at this old station, unless that hose is just for show.

I’m guessing that these holes are recent and not indicative of Bob Wills’ fans.

This monument in Turkey, Texas has granite panels with information about Bob Wills on each panel.

This panel depiction of Bob Wills appears to be a good likeness to this early country swing musician.

As Bob would say, Ah Hah, and this wraps up my July photo excursion.

Ken

Abandoned Church, New Mexico, July 2021, Interior Views

Abandoned Church Exterior, Front and East Side, New Mexico

After photographing the exterior of this old, abandoned church at the outskirts of a small New Mexico town, I ventured through the open doorway (there was no door) to check out the interior.

Abandoned Church, Interior Graffiti, Just inside the doorway

I had noted much graffiti just looking through the doorway and windows. Judging by the dates and graffiti messages, it looks like this place is popular with teenagers, presumably local ones, since this is a long way from any other towns or cities.

Shooting handheld in the dim light inside the church required high ISO to get sufficiently high shutter speeds to avoid fuzzy images. Shooting through windows from inside resulted in blowing out the exterior portions of the images.

Abandoned Church, Interior and Graffiti, Pulpit

I’ve brought out some of the exterior details in the editing process in the image above just to avoid having a white blur in the windows. The exterior details through the windows are very low quality as a result. If I had not been shooting handheld, I could have acquired images to create HDR images.

The floor boards were still sound, so maybe the missing boards are a result of someone looking for hidden treasure.

The ceiling bead board had a nice patina and mostly appeared to be in good condition. The covers to the ceiling light fixtures were all missing, presumably broken or maybe stolen. There were remnants of broken light bulbs in the fixtures.

There were no window panes so a breeze through the windows made the hanging light fixtures sway. I had to increase the ISO even more to freeze the motion of these.

Obviously some electrical item had been removed from the central portion of the ceiling. I’m guessing a ceiling fan had been here and has been stolen, if not removed legally, since those early day fans might be valuable antiques.

This wraps up my photography here.

Until next time,

Ken

Abandoned Church, New Mexico, July 2021, Exterior Views

Abandoned Church Exterior, Front and East Side

As I traveled towards my second overnight destination in route to the Grand Canyon North Rim in July 2021, I spotted an abandoned church about a block north of the highway at the edge of a small New Mexico town. I had to stop to check out this old church.

The roadway from the highway to the church was gravel, but in good condition. There were other homes or building visible from the church site, but none were very close to the church, making it stand out from its surroundings.

I walked around the exterior photographing the church from various angles and capturing some of the exterior details, before I ventured through the front doorway.

Abandoned Church Exterior, Weathered and Scared Siding

Abandoned Church Exterior, Weathered Siding

This post is dedicated to the exterior views. It was afternoon and the lighting was not great for capturing this weathered old church, but I knew I might not pass by again for a long time, if ever, so I had to make the best of the photographic conditions.

Abandoned Church Exterior, Window and Interior View

Abandoned Church Exterior, Back and East Side

Abandoned Church Exterior, Back and West Side

Abandoned Church Exterior, Front and West Side, New Mexico

Abandoned Church Exterior, Window and View to Interior Ceiling

I will post photographs from the interior next.

Until then,

Ken

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Tag: Abandoned

Rural Decay and Photography

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