This is the fourth and final post from my December 18th, 2018 trip to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge near San Antonio, New Mexico.
     Click here to see all my posts from Bosque del Apache.

     These images were originally published on a previous incarnation of The Dry Heat Blog on March 1, 2009 following a road trip from Albuquerque, NM to Las Vegas, NV for the annual WPPI convention. So, not only is the town old but so are these photos!
     Ashfork is a must-see stop on Route 66 through Arizona. If memory serves, the nine hour drive from Albuquerque to Las Vegas took two and a half days due to all the Route 66 photo stops. It was time well spent!
     All of these photos were shot on a Canon 50D with a Lensbaby 2.0 and edited with some fancy Kubota Actions which were purchased at WPPI.

     Ramah is a tiny little town on HWY 53 southwest of Grants, New Mexico. In and of itself, it is not a place worth traveling too but it is on the way to some more noteworthy destinations such as the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary, El Morro National Monument and the Bandera Ice Cave.
     Ramah is part of the Navajo Nation and that means you had better read the signs. If the sign says that the speed limit is 20mph (and the signs do say that), it is safe to assume they're not messing around, especially if you "ain't from around here". Additionally, if the sign says "No Trespassing", it is not a suggestion and, with the police station, courthouse and jail all less than half a mile away, I highly recommend shooting from the safe-side of the fence.
​     This abandoned farm house is at the edge of town and behind a barbed wire fence with a locked gate. Word to the wise: don't climb through the fence.
​     All photos shot with a Motorola MotoX4 and edited with Snapseed.

     Not the town of Seligman, Arizona. It's as obscure as ever and probably more so now than when these photos were shot.
     It's the photos themselves that have been rescued. In the past five years, I've moved across the country twice, broken some eggs, made some omelettes. One of the causalities of all this upheaval was almost all of my fine art photography portfolio. Gone without a trace. But then a minor miracle happened and I discovered that an old incarnation of the original Dry Heat Blog was still live on the interwebs and on it were many of my photos that I thought were gone forever. Sadly, these are not the high-res print files but they are at least good enough for viewing here on the current Dry Heat Blog.
     These images were originally published on March 1, 2009 after a road trip from Albuquerque, NM to Las Vegas, NV for the annual WPPI convention.
​Lots of good Route 66 stuff on the way!
     These photos were shot on a Canon 50D with a Lensbaby 2.0 and edited with some fancy Kubota Actions that I purchased at WPPI.

     I've been driving past this Route 66 landmark for years and have stopped to photograph it many times. Unfortunately, most of those images are lost to time and upheaval so I have gone once again to photograph what's left of the Whiting Bros. Filling Station and Motel that is off of I-40 west of Albuquerque, and about 10 miles east of Grants. These photos were shot on May 26, 2019.
     The Whiting Bros. company was established in 1926, the same year that U.S. Route 66 was designated across the southwestern United States. Whiting Bros. was based in St. Johns and Holbrook, Arizona and, at it's peak, operated more than a hundred filling stations and fifteen motels (including at least forty on the former U.S. Route 66 through Arizona and New Mexico).
     This particular station had a motel, according to the sign, but that building was apparently torn down. Next to the gas station there is a concrete foundation with nothing on it.
​     All photos shot with a Motorola MotoX4 and edited with Snapseed.