Country Roads

Went out the other day on a small trip and decided to photograph some countryside. We found a beautiful little stone house, quite a few farmhouses and an old school. We also got to photograph some beautiful landscapes and to top it off a gorgeous sunset.

 

beautiful home built of fieldstone

Since i was shooting with a lens that had macro i decided
to photograph this huge spider that was the only
resident of the stone house

brick details

old school

power poles lining a long gone street

sunset to end the day

lonely mill & ghost town

This would be the second time we have visited this mine/mill and ghost town. What a beautiful location. This old mining town and mill are located on a Montana back road and we quite intact but are not protected. They are in good condition considering the elements have taken their toll on sites nearby. This location has a bunkhouse, mill, hotel and many houses across the road.

hotel

hotel stairs to the 2nd floor

hotel room

townsite

townsite

townsite

hotel view from the mill

mill interior

mill interior

top of the mill & view of the townsite

in a western direction

I had a destination in mind. Although getting there the easy way would mean taking the main highway and this is clearly not the option I wanted. So instead I took an alternate route and checked out some small ghost towns and churches. Although I didn't have much time it was enough to satisfy my urge to photograph and explore something. Some of the places I have visited I had already seen years ago, it was nice to see that not much has changed over the years. Instead of seeing vandalism it was just the elements that were taking their toll on the buildings.

Here are a few of my favorites...

visited this church years ago, very little has changed

still bright despite the age of these containers

This tricycle was neat to see - check out the bed in the background

 

 last picture of the day before it started to rain & snow

hill billy ghost town

I went up to my cabin and decided to do some exploring in the area. The area north of my cabin is what people like to call "hill billy country". It's full of small, mostly abandoned towns where people will live in virtually any type of housing and most run on wood stoves. This area is also full of hunters during the right season as it is quite forested. I spent a few hours driving through some of the towns and came across this one, a small quaint town full of abandoned houses and buses convereted into homes.. thats right - a bus house.

bountiful prairies

Decided to go on a weekend trip to check up on some locations we have not visited in a while. We were very surprised by what we found. A complete ghost town now has people living in it again and fixing up the houses - never thought I would see this happen. We also found some other interesting things along the way and had a chance to do some photography before it got to cold.