While driving back from a nature trip in Northern California, we decided to take an alternative route home. The detour lead us past the spooky but unimposing town of Locke, its ghostly and strangely warped buildings and locals who fit the town like Cinderella’s shoe fit her foot. After the long trip, my better half looked at me bewildered when I jumped out of the car, thrilled to take pictures here.
You can find one of the strangest places in America next to the Ghost Town of Rhyolite, just outside of Death Valley National Park. The Goldwell Open Air Museum features an unusual collection of sculptures by a group of Belgian artists. The Museum is open 24/7, which inspired me to try some light painting techniques, much to my fellow traveler’s displeasure. The eerie feeling you get when you explore this area for the first time at night, combined with the sounds of metal scraping on a wooden pole and wind whistling through the wooden structures sets the perfect atmosphere for ghost photos.
Ghost Towns are abundant in Death Valley. Many prospectors tried their luck in this unforgiving landscape. The remote mining site of Skidoo is one of the hidden treasures of Death Valley. The hills around town are riddled with holes like a Swiss cheese. A big warning sign tells you to keep your children at a leash and your dogs close, or the other way around, I forgot.
Fortunes found and fortunes flown away, the Ghost Towns of Death Valley are legendary. Maybe our vivid imagination lures us to these places or the parallels we see to us in people who carved a living out of this hostile environment.
Become a subscriber and be among the first to read the new articles.
Subscribe
