The Big Empty – A Photo Essay
There are many roads in the desert that look like they go nowhere. But you always end up somewhere.
Breaking off from California’s 5 freeway, Highway 14 cuts north through the high desert. As it turns into Highway 395 it runs along the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains on its way to Reno, Nevada. Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the lower 48 states, sits right off this route overlooking three vast valleys in its eastern view: Owens Valley, Panamint Valley, and Death Valley. This lesser traveled area of California is sprinkled with sparsely populated towns that were once part of a robust mining operation chain. As the mines dried up the towns residents left. Gradually these towns decayed away under a harsh desert sun. What remains is a sun baked mix of relics and the resilient spread throughout sweeping valleys and foothill towns.
I grew up along this route and spent a lot of time in the booming silence of The Big Empty. It is both an inspiring and humbling place – a place where you simultaneously feel big and small. You can yell in the desert and it will both amplify and swallow your cry. At night you can walk between two countless seas: the scattered sands beneath which were once mountains themselves and the sparkling stars above – miniature giants in the infinite. And in between there is just you – a blink in time wandering and wondering among the landscape sculpted and shaped by the slow finesse of natures hand at a pace imperceptible to the short sighted.
What follows in this book is my personal documentation of the strange, the inspiring and the enduring things you find down roads that seem to go nowhere.
An incredible rock formation off Highway 14 in Red Rock Canyon State Park.
A tilt-shift shot of hoodoo rock formations in Red Rock Canyon State Park.
A Dilapidated building in Red Mountain, CA.
A look down at Owens Valley from the road leading up to the ghost town of Cerro Gordo.
The supply line for the mining operations had multiple stops along the route to the port of Los Angeles. Today, these trains still ship minerals mined and processed in Trona, CA.
The Half Lemon in Olancha, CA off Highway 395.
Likely a storage area of some sort. Part of the track for the mining carts can be seen above the roof in the background.
The bathroom in Ballarat.
These houses are scattered all over the desert.
An old wagon wheel along a fence in the ghost town of Cerro Gordo.
Cobwebs forming on rocks left in a mining cart.
Visitors make their own contribution in the ghost town of Cerro Gordo.
"This is a free zone. Take any kind of photos you want. Camp, party, make movies, etc. No harm, nobody cares. Feel free, learn nothen setting in your car. The friendly zone. Welcome to Ballarat Ghost Town... 3 dollars this was the post office 1897. See the museum store, trading post, history, old photos, Charlie Manson's truck. Maps. Fire a gun.
Is that half of a cast iron bathtub?
A Mining Cart in Cerro Gordo.
A Dilapidated building in Red Mountain, CA.
Cerro Gordo miners bunked here until the next shift.
An old wagon wheel along a fence in the ghost town of Cerro Gordo.
Mount Whitney sits under the stars.
Allegedly this 1942 Dodge Power Wagon was driven around by Charles Manson and Tex Watson.
The solid wall of mountains is the eastern face of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Underneath them is Owens Valley.
An old wagon stationed in the foreground.
An ATV in front of large hoodoos.
Geological Hoodoos form out of the sedimentary rock.
The contrasting colors of Red Rock Canyon against the blue desert sky.
The road is pointing directly up to Mount Whitney which is the highest point in the contingent 48 states.
A look down into the north end of Owens dry lake bed.
Desert flowers in bloom.
The area surrounding Lone Pine, California has been used as a backdrop for numerous Hollywood movies including Iron Man and Tremors. The boulders are iconic.
Highway 14 cuts through Red Rock Canyon. It's prone to flash floods and washed away roads.
The railroad here is part of a supply chain that expanded hundreds of miles north to south. Along the way in the background sits the Trona Pinnacles.
Salt flats from the minerals mined in Trona.
These tufa spires formed at the bottom of large lake beds. The oldest of these are around 100,000 years old. The site has been used in the movies Star Trek and Planet of the Apes. Both Lady Gaga and Rihanna have filmed music videos here too.
The Gear works of an unknown machine in the ghost town of Cerro Gordo.
The tallest of these spires are about 140 feet in height.
Wild Donkeys roaming in Panamint Valley.
A crumbling jail in Ballarat.
The mountains tower over the Ballarat outpost.
Some sort of stone formations put together by people in Ballarat.
Lone Pine Lake with reflecting trees.
