We have a special surprise for tomorrow, so I won't spoil it today. However, I could not let the 70 something degree weather and out final days in Arizona to pass by without a little drive on the 10 to see something old, abandoned and on a road that says "Primitive Road". And so, we drive.
This time, we brought Little Girl. She had complained about not being there after she had seen all the images, so this time we pretty much forced her into going so she would not complain afterwards. She was thrilled she did, as so were we. The drive was short, sweet and complete. I love driving on 10 because you go from city to desert to some spotty buildings and there is always a train, a huge, long train.
Once off the 10, we traveled through a newly built community and I just could not imagine that five miles down the road was an abandoned town. But, once we passed a plethora of cows, which have now been dubbed Little Girl's brothers, we were off a paved road and on a washboard road. Dust flew behind us and I swear I think that there should have music from Footloose on the radio. We passed ATV's and dune buggies and trucks, and there we were in, in our Prius, cruising along. Once we hit the 5 mile mark, we began to see the remains of SASCO. Sasco, Arizona was a small town that was a smelter community. The town is an acronym for the Southern Arizona Smelter Company and took the materials mined from surrounding towns and used the smelter in Sasco to refine it, extracting the metal from the ore.
The first location bore several decayed stone walls, windows still present, some newly made windows. The wood still header still held up the wall over the doors and windows. The location offered beautiful views of the mountains surrounding the Red Rock area. It was splendid. Big Man circled the area, ducking in windows and below beams to get amazing pictures. Little Girl climbed onto window ledges, into and out of time worn windows and onto and off of large rocks.
About fifteen minutes into our visit, two ATV's came our way. I will admit, we were in the middle of nowhere, so anyone coming our way, without any service on our phones, made me nervous. Happened to be two nice young women with a small warning: There are a group of men on the way down this way. You may just want to be careful, stay close to your car. And so we did, we took a couple more shots and hit the washboard road. There was more to see, I know there was, we could see it on the map, but it was getting dark and with the unknown out there, we didn't want to take any chances.
Back on the 10 - headed towards Tucson, but one more stop. We had seen it from the road many times in our travels but there is a commercial airline graveyard,not the boneyard in Tucson which is so famous, but for 727's, 737's, and 747's. And so, with a quick exit, we went to the base to check them out. There, just parked like my Scion, your Honda, anyone's Subaru, were planes. All sizes, all colors, all abandoned. It was very cool, restricted area, and well off limits. So we shot a few images, and off we went. Tomorrow, I have one last special abandoned location to photograph and share with you. It is one I have been dying to see since we first started coming tot he area and we have a special tour planned tomorrow. Stay tuned, I know you are all on the edge of your seats. Can you contain yourself?
This time, we brought Little Girl. She had complained about not being there after she had seen all the images, so this time we pretty much forced her into going so she would not complain afterwards. She was thrilled she did, as so were we. The drive was short, sweet and complete. I love driving on 10 because you go from city to desert to some spotty buildings and there is always a train, a huge, long train.
Once off the 10, we traveled through a newly built community and I just could not imagine that five miles down the road was an abandoned town. But, once we passed a plethora of cows, which have now been dubbed Little Girl's brothers, we were off a paved road and on a washboard road. Dust flew behind us and I swear I think that there should have music from Footloose on the radio. We passed ATV's and dune buggies and trucks, and there we were in, in our Prius, cruising along. Once we hit the 5 mile mark, we began to see the remains of SASCO. Sasco, Arizona was a small town that was a smelter community. The town is an acronym for the Southern Arizona Smelter Company and took the materials mined from surrounding towns and used the smelter in Sasco to refine it, extracting the metal from the ore.
The first location bore several decayed stone walls, windows still present, some newly made windows. The wood still header still held up the wall over the doors and windows. The location offered beautiful views of the mountains surrounding the Red Rock area. It was splendid. Big Man circled the area, ducking in windows and below beams to get amazing pictures. Little Girl climbed onto window ledges, into and out of time worn windows and onto and off of large rocks.
About fifteen minutes into our visit, two ATV's came our way. I will admit, we were in the middle of nowhere, so anyone coming our way, without any service on our phones, made me nervous. Happened to be two nice young women with a small warning: There are a group of men on the way down this way. You may just want to be careful, stay close to your car. And so we did, we took a couple more shots and hit the washboard road. There was more to see, I know there was, we could see it on the map, but it was getting dark and with the unknown out there, we didn't want to take any chances.
Back on the 10 - headed towards Tucson, but one more stop. We had seen it from the road many times in our travels but there is a commercial airline graveyard,not the boneyard in Tucson which is so famous, but for 727's, 737's, and 747's. And so, with a quick exit, we went to the base to check them out. There, just parked like my Scion, your Honda, anyone's Subaru, were planes. All sizes, all colors, all abandoned. It was very cool, restricted area, and well off limits. So we shot a few images, and off we went. Tomorrow, I have one last special abandoned location to photograph and share with you. It is one I have been dying to see since we first started coming tot he area and we have a special tour planned tomorrow. Stay tuned, I know you are all on the edge of your seats. Can you contain yourself?