This was mine trip

I never posted about the towns I saw on my way back on the south side of the Mojave during my birthday trip.

My favorite stretch of route 66 goes from Kingman AZ to Needles. It's windy, narrow, full of mines on the side of the road and treacherous if the sun is going down. I ate in Oatman at a biker and cowgirl restaurant, then took the waitress's advice and camped south of town on the side of the road. I was awakened by a baby donkey rooting through my damp campfire. So cute.

The next morning, on my way down the mountain, I found a little 'town' that I can only identify as Vivian on one map. There were about 4 or 5 foundations and a few buildings sinking into the earth.


Vivian was also apparently for sale at one time...or still is. Anyone?

The trip home also brought me through Danby, an eerie abandoned train station (complete with abandoned train) obviously in habited in multiple stages.


Anboy was a honeymooning spot in the 50s. You could walk right into the unlocked motel suites.

Ludlow was where I dropped my sunglasses into a stopped up toilet. It was very different from Varney's 30 year old account I was going from.

Birthday - first halfsies

After a lovely Denny's dinner and sleeping at a truck stop east of Barstow, I woke up early and had a delicious bacon breakfast at Mad Greek Cafe near Baker, CA which boasted the "Best Gyros in the USA." It was too early to find out if that was really true.
Across the street was a popular place that I wish I had known about the night before:
Next I headed into the Mojave to find Cima, Ivanpah, Vanderbilt, and Rose, most of which are abandoned rain stations/mining towns within the natural preserve.
Houses at Cima: Vanderbilt was basically one large foundation and a wall: Looking through a busted main frame at Rose with peeping Joshua trees: Next I went to find Ivanpah. There are actually two Ivanpahs. One is in the Mojave preserve and is an abandoned train station, and the other is off of highway 15 just outside. I followed Varney's instructions very carefully, noting my milage and everything. I ended up winding left and right down these crazy dirt roads and finally landing on a Y and not knowing which way to go. The road up ahead was impassible, so I got out and started walking. I quickly realized that I was on the wrong road because I could see the stone walls of several 100+ year old buildings on the road below. I turned around to go down and that's when I saw many gigantic kitty cat prints in the sand. I know...they might look like dog prints...but these things were massive.

A bag of gummy frogs later, and on my way to a Lake Mead camping spot (where the grocery store cashier sang happy birthday to me and a mean lady with 6 golden retrievers was camping), I found this very interesting desert structure. Funny Varney never mentioned it.

Days 3 through 5 are coming up shortly, and they are better because I am older in them.

Somewhere on a desert highway

Leggy and I went to Death Valley and around the Mojave and Yosemite area last weekend. Pictures and narration are in the works, but for now...here are a few of our adventures in motion. It's a little long, but I couldn't resist the 360 panoramas. We went to the flattest place on the planet, The Racetrack (home of sailing stones); we found old miner's clothing and eating utensils and went in half a dozen mines (tailing wheels and stamp mills included!); we spotted coyotes, tarantulas, and rabbits; we ate cold supper, and we saw Ubehebe crater. We also dabbled in Darwin and Cerro Gordo...both of which deserve a return trip. Varney rarely leads us astray, but this time we found stuff that I'm sure Varney doesn't even know about.



This trip only increased my obsession with buying waterless property to call my own. I even have the Cerro Gordo caretaker's number programmed into my phone.

I <3 Philip Varney

In the introduction to Arizona's Best Ghost towns Varney says: "...don't stop looking for that elusive ghost town with the playing cards still on the table. I found it - once. But I won't hand it to you..." I would totally piss my pants.

Here are the three that I have so far...two more are on their way.

Oh Phil.