A Ride to See Hayden

I have to get out of the house. Work can wait for next week to show me the latest slide and to be honest while I want to go far away, I know I have to stick close to the house. Too much happening here this weekend with friends in town from all over, A chance to go shoot the ChiHuly collection one more time in both daylight and nighttime with T, and of course Easter.

So I decide to head....somewhere. No plan just me, the Ipod and the GT. These rides always turn out the best when there is no plan.


No need for luggage other than the Tank Bag. I have just recently got a new chord for the Garmin so I slap it on more for a speedometer then anything else. The numbers are easier to see than the speedo on the dash. Not that I look at my speed all that much.

I am off and down the road and decide to head East with the thought of maybe going South to Tucson the back way, maybe up to Show Low and back through Payson or maybe end up in San Antonio to hang with Louise and Whip!

As I get out of town I just let the bike lead the way up and out towards Globe. For some reason I am just burning through stress like it isn't even there. I have great music on and my troubles are just peeling off of me.


The road is open with almost no cars and I just set a nice leisurely pace towards Superior where I will get some gas.

Gassing up takes no time and I decide to head towards Kearny instead of Globe. Hey its my ride! As I ride past the Copper mine I think about how man can do that to the landscape. I am engrossed in a very interesting conversation about this with a friend and it has me puzzled now more than her use of purple in the email. Can you have a serious environmental conversation in purple?

While I ponder this I ride right past Kearny and head towards Tucson. As I get to the next junction there is a sign that says it leads to Hayden Arizona. Having never checked out Hayden, I turn as I am apt to do more than not and discover a living ghost town. There is a mine there and people living there but the down town is dead. I mean totally shuttered up.


I park and explore a bit


The architecture is stunning and I would have loved to have seen it in its heyday.


Now all the windows are broken and the place is dormant.



A porch from the days before AC


The old theater. I bet films like "On the Waterfront", "Hoffa" and even "Norma Rae" were big hits in Hayden. Though I wonder if the marquee had the "N" in "Norma Rae" going the right direction?


Even Disney had a presence here at one time.


I will come back to this place with my big camera one day and spend an afternoon getting to know it better. There is much more to photograph but I need to get back for dinner and the road pulls me more today than usual. So back on the GT and off to the house.


A nice clean 200 miles. Not a bad way to spend the afternoon.