yours truly exploring an abandoned home in the desert. Little B&e, but there wasn’t any actual breaking I did.
i thought i might find snakes or giant spiders but instead it’s just burros trying to get in my boots.
The day started at 4am and I found myself driving in the general direction of desert space.
the only actual leftover structure I found from some ghost town. there was a pond up there built into the rock, and then a whole lot of burro artifacts…..
I’m just a slightly crazy single lady exploring randomly. Case in point, google said I could hike the Motherlode Road” so I headed to what was just a random dirt road and trails leading toward a dry Coyote Lake… and while wandering that, someone drove out in his truck with his dogs to see what the hell I was doing. I gripped my pepper spray and my phone as if I could call 911. You never know. He said they don’t have many people just walking around out there.
Back on random roads, mixing into traffic heading to a military training center as I went to check out their “painted rocks”. Google didn’t mention the nature of the paintings… battalion and mission oriented Hoo-rah. Walking barefoot in my teal dress, I’m sure I made quite a weird sight for those heading to work. I like to think they might imagine me a hippie child, or a bereaved wife.. but of course I’m no one’s wife. .
And then I heading toward Copper City, the coolest ghost town name ever.
On my way there, I passed by the Liberty Sculpture Park, so you know I turned my happy butt around and waltzed up in there. What I found was a somber surprise: a cold-war era monument that seems rather important to consider right now. I don’t delve into politics as an active choice- a rabbit hole I hate to visit. So I’ll let you draw your own ideas from what you see. I posted the “Liberty” image and received likes from both sides of the main aisle… and I think we both know that checks.
seems like a good time to think about history, js.
I didn’t linger, and I didn’t look at everything there. I browsed and skimmed the writing, and as it was chilly in the early morning light, I jogged while I imagined this might someday be full of other viewers. A port-o-potty leaned nearby, waiting.
Onward to the desert. I was on the edge of the Mojave. The day before I’d passed through towns like Oatman, AZ, and fell in love not just with the wild donkey everywhere, but with the Black Mountains themselves. I was so tempted to pull over and sleep right there, and I may need to go back to get that experience. But driving through this old mining town made me eager to find a genuine abandoned town and explore it. Ghosts and all.
I headed toward Copper City with gusto and a lot of water. The drive to this town should have taken about an hour- 25 miles away and dirt/sand roads, so you have to go slow. And what is up with that waterboard texture that sand takes? Even at just an inch or two it makes the car shake violently, forcing you slow (or just stop, it’s not like you’ll be holding up traffic).
Pause to honor the first CRONUT I’ve ever had. Someone fried a croisant? How evil. I love it. I’m at Landmark Coffee, somewhere in SoCal.
Clearly I got out of the desert. But not before stumbling onto a ROAD CLOSED with about a 50 miles of barbed wire around it. And if you wondered how stubborn I am, I’m stubborn enough that I drove around that fence, stones and rocks be damned. Yes, there was another narrow “open road” nearby. About this time I had no cellular signal, but one of the maps maintains routes offline, thankfully. I saw I could probably connect again with the right road, and find my way to the ghost town of my dreams.
But that didn’t happen. I ran into one ROAD CLOSED and barricades and fences after another, though I persevered until it became clear no one else had gone any further in a 2WD. The cacti and grass there had grown tall enough to brush not just the underside of my Kia, but also scrape her sides a bit. Thank God for that thick coating of dust, amiright? Maybe I didn’t get many new scratches… But the rocks were large enough I had to stop.
this is a completely passable example of an “open road”, not one of those… two-hands-gripping-the-steering-wheel-for-dear-life sort of bumpy ones.
I got out of my car because I had this weird desire to wash my hair in the desert. I was still next to a “warning no entry” barbed wire fence and some mention of the gov’mnt owning it, but I thought why not. I was going to hunt up my shampoo when for the first time I heard absolutely terrifying booms from underground nearby. Suddenly I was part ghost, levitating in the air as I screamed for mercy and ran back to the drivers seat.
no idea, but I think those are bullet holes
I took a different route away from that fence, mostly in hopes it might be an easier route. Stumbling on a dry lake bed for the second time that day, but this one I was able to drive right up to! Hesitating only briefly enough to walk a few steps and confirm it was solid dried mud, I drove my gorgeous, strong as an ox Kia Soul around and around, spinning in circles, slightly slow only because they do have a roll risk… and I could see tracks of others, too, and I had so much fun! I sat a while, too, parked in teh dead center, legs akimbo and in a long dress and I just… liked where I was. I liked the silence, and the lack of people, the solidness of the ground, the newness of it all.
It was a wonderful moment.
Finding my way back to a road at this point was difficult. I almost got stuck more than once, but managed to drive in reverse, roll the car up and down waves of sand. It was glorious, I felt like the military might see my driving skills and come recruit me for something important.
And then there it was! A trail and I was heading toward an actual “open road” that made the map! And oh my god, I saw another car, the first human in an hour at least… we ended up chatting a bit, and they were looking for petroglyphs, which I soon found just after passing them, I don’t think they drove far enough. I wished I could tell them to come back, but instead I just crawled around the rocks some by myself, worrying for snakes. I admired then began to step over this carving and I have to say I had the most strange feeling as I straddled it, choosing to go back to the ground instead. I’m not saying the rock had an energy to it, but.. maybe.
i think it used The Force
That was about the end of the day because I gouged a tire as I took to actual street pavement about 30 minutes later. Thankful for AAA, they were fast! 2 new back tires to match the two front ones I bought the very day before, not a very exciting way to end the day but by dark I found a nice space to camp overlooking the mountains and here we are.
California needs to turn the lights down
Off to reserach San Diego while my phone downloads all 350 new photos since Feb 17…
These are all mixed up but I’m eager to move from this coffee shop… I am in Phoenix area today and of course about two days behind on posting. There’s so much to see and do! xoxo
the milky way isn’t my favorite candybar, but it sure makes a nice sky.
