Yearly Archives: 2020

Chata Ortega’s Bar & Grill

Many weekends are filled with hours on the back roads of rural Texas. Its pretty common to spend 8 hours traveling in either direction for abandoned locations in Texas for one night photo and then return home. But the places etched in time are worth the effort with night skies away from most light pollution. The above shot is the Abandoned Chata Ortega’s Bar & Grill near Toyah, Texas.

Location: 31°21’02.2″N 103°42’45.8″W

Charlotte’s Farm

Many places are on private property. And we always like to get permission first. One place in particular the land owner gave us permission to explore we call Charlotte’s Farm. A pretty vast acreage of abandoned farm houses and cars litter this area. We have gone back to this location 4 times now. Some in the summer, some in the winter months. But always have to be on the lookout for snakes.

Lake Pauline Powerplant

I was lucky enough to catch this old art-deco looking power plant just before it was demolished. Traveled here two different times. The […]

The area encompassing the magnificent landscape of the Escalante River canyons is known as the Escalante Basin and is a small part of the greater province known as the Colorado Plateau.  As the plateaus were uplifted by the shifting and buckling of the earth, and the canyons were eroded by meandering streams, a great cross-section of geological formations was eventually exposed. Some of these formations contain the fossils of dinosaur bones, sea shells, land and marine organisms, and the petrified wood of ancient forests.

My first trip to the southwest was back in 2000. On that trip I traveled for two weeks trying to cram in as many locations as I could around the Grand Circle. On my first visit to the Escalante area, I hiked to see Zebra Canyon, Devils Garden and Spooky Gulch. Since that first year, I have been to the Utah area every year at least once and had many more visits to the Escalante area, mainly down Hole in the Rock Road. In the sections below, I will be adding locations and hiking stories […]