Free Love Canyon

In the 1960’s a group of travelers stopped their journey within the canyon created by a long closed sulfur mine. Here amidst bubbling pools of low concentration sulfuric acid and the toxic reek of hydrogen sulfide they created a home for themselves.

A home to the original travelers no longer, I paid a visit to free love canyon. The structures that remained clung to the edges of the wasteland and forest like children scared to come out and play. The smell of hydrogen sulfide permeated everything, burning my eyes and throat. This industrial gas, deadly in higher concentrations, occurs naturally here; created by the sulfurous magma flowing close to the surface; visibly bubbling from the lifeless ponds.

As I wandered through the ghost town ominous clouds began to gather. The farther I got from the road the less damaged the buildings began to appear. As the breeze picked up the bleached bones of an elk swung on sharpened hooks.

I began to feel a distinct unease as I approached the last row of trailers. I felt the presence of a silent observer; the last inhabitant of this brutal landscape.

As the first drops of rain began to fall I quickly left the sulfur pits, the last inhabitant’s unseen eyes watching me leave, satisfied that the secrets remained hidden.

-2012-
sleepwalking
new chapter

-2011-
like sedona?
torn in two
blink
bridge to nowhere
door
hitting the wall
elusive 2
elusive 1
ascenders
voyage
hole
icarus

-2010-
revisited 2
revisited 1
which way?
the pit
treasure
narrow
snowfall
chute
false floor
monolith
crack
freeze
slice
bunker
beckon
treasure
resolution

-2009-
goodbyes
undercurrents
casting the bones
mountain thief
the deer hunter
strange temple
sanctuary
burial pt. 3
burial pt. 2
burial pt. 1
scarlet fever
rebirth from hell
forsaken
the lower depths
underground lake
stretch sewer
crypt
still waters
shadow movements
meager rations
sw pt.8: geothermal + ending
sw pt.7: lost gold mines
sw pt.6: big tube caves
sw pt.5: gold!
sw pt.4: el calderon caves
sw pt.3: redondo
sw pt.2: ghosts
southwest adventure pt.1
the river
dark salvation
reflections
dreams
the underdark
night odyssey
beginnings