Recent Travels - Widow Jane Mine
The winter in the north east has been favorably mild this year, temperatures havent reached below freezing for more then a few days and aside from one major snow storm the lands have stayed clean. Taking advantage of this we decided to head up north to New York state and see what we could find. Off of a mutual friends suggestion we headed to an abandoned mine up in the mountains by the name of Widow Jane. The now defunct mine was once one of the largest and most profitable in the north east, since it has become a tourist excursion for paid tours, and most recently been abandoned. After climbing over the steep cliff we ascended onto the cave entrance, upon entering the bright yellow stone pillars were first to draw your eyes. They were massive and scattered throughout supporting the mountain above, down in the back of one of the caverns train tracks led into an emerald green pond, the air and water still and cold. The way the entrance of the mine was created allows rays of sunlight during golden hour to saturate the cavern walls and light the front chamber in the most magical way. Widow Jane is definitely one of our favorite spots to date and we will be going back.
-Keep Traveling
The Imperial Sand Dunes - " We need to experience this barefoot "
After refueling and heading out of the glorious Salvation Mountain we started north toward Phoenix where friendly faces, a hot shower, and a night of sleep in a home that didn't have four wheels awaited us, oh and civilization let us not forget that. The roads started off incredibly flat and straight for as far as our eyes would let us see. We continued like this for hours with another car passing once every thirty or so miles, gradually the landscape started gently raising and collapsing. The soft hills coated in low small vegetation and little else, in the distance one could see mountains majestically painting the horizon as the sun started to lower itself in the royal blue sky. Driving onward we suddenly found ourselves being wrapped in a terrain we had yet to encounter while on the road, pale dunes of sand higher then the van on either side of the road, the winds blurring where road war ended and dune began. Amazed at what we were seeing we found the nearest pull off and in one moment ripped our socks and shoes off and began our sprint into the marian landscape. The sand beneath our feet felt like silk and all at once we flashed back to children dancing in the yard with no care or worry of the troubles in our respective lives. We summited the biggest dune we could see and gazed out toward the setting sun, the landscape went for miles with no sign of anything else. The difference between the shadowy sides of the dune and those painted with the sun was that of fall and spring. As we stood and watched the sun set the dunes became richer in color and the sky began to show us what a sunset should always be, brilliant purples, pinks, blues, all seamlessly mixing and mingling together. I will never forget that moment and the feeling of complete freedom that overwhelmed me. This is what life was all about and this the feeling i will forever chase. endlessly.