(On my last blog post I chronicled my first day of my trip, flight, RV pick-up, and hilarity ensued on my way to Nelson, Nevada.)

Sleep didn’t come as easily as I thought it would last night. As tired as I was you’d think I’d slept like a baby! Nope, new environment, new sounds, too much excitement, 3-inch thick cheap vinyl-covered RV mattress on the over-the-cab bed? Whatever it was, it was. Every hour or so I woke up and peeked out the teeny windows overlooking each side of the RV. Thought maybe I’d see something. Mountain lion? The Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote maybe? I even looked up looking for stars. If I was going to be awake, maybe I’d see if I can catch a milky way. But no stars were visible. The RV was parked facing north/south, so I was sleeping east/west, with my head toward the east, toward the mine property and the beautiful view of the Black Mountain range of Arizona. I finally fell asleep. When I woke again and peeked out the window, I saw a hint of orange light skimming over the mountains. Since nature called, and I answered, and I was already up, I decided to have a coffee and go out early to explore the Eldorado Canyon area east of me, photograph the stuff I saw, and then shoot the sunrise.

Pre-dawn orange glow over the Black Mountains.

It was so calm and quiet. No city noise, no traffic, no car alarms, just a few birds. I walked around with one eye on the plants, the other eye looking out for rattlers. I saw none of the latter, thank God. But there were many new plants, cholla cactus (pronounced choy-ya) which I at first thought were Joshua Trees - nope, not; creosote bushes, Sagebrush, and many other bushes that all look alike and I can’t identify just yet, but they were everywhere. So different from what I’m used to.

Many teddy bear cholla cacti, just kissed by the glowing sunlight.

Another buckhorn cholla and the mountains of Eldorado Canyon to the north, being kissed by the soon-to-be rising sun.

Silver cholla, maybe sagebrush? and a creosote bush in front of Eldorado Canyon.

The neat thing about photographing in the mountains, I observed, that sunrise may be at 7am, but that’s not when the sun breaks the crest of the mountain, that may be another 10-15 minutes later. What results is soft light well past sunrise, unlike here in Florida where when it says sunrise is at 7am (barring clouds of course) those sun’s rays will be shining on the landscape at 7am. I was able to wander around for quite a while before that sun crested the mountain. I got a few shots of the sun with some sunstars. But I couldn’t dilly dally much longer, I had a mine tour to go on!

There she is, the rising sun over the Black Mountains over yonder in Arizona.

And there’s my Jezebel, along with my abandoned rest and relaxation area, and neglected coffee!

I went inside and had breakfast and another coffee and prepared my camera gear for the tour. No long lens is necessary. Too heavy to drag along with me anyway. Just the camera and my 24-70 would be enough. By 8:30 I headed off to the mine. I didn’t want to be late. I stopped on the way to shoot some more cholla. I couldn’t get enough of them!

Mountains of Eldorado Canyon, with buckhorn & teddy bear cholla cacti.

I went inside and paid my fee and asked if I was allowed to photograph the grounds. Many signs outside telling people to keep out and that they had to get permission to do just about anything. The folks there were really nice and said I could explore all I wanted, because I just paid. They just didn’t want people pulling over and taking advantage of the place for free.

I walked around and shot a bunch of their buildings and some of the cool antique stuff lying around. They certainly had an interesting collection.

Eldorado Canyon Mine Tours - ELDORADO CANYON MINE TOURS - Home

Eldorado Canyon Mine Tours (this is aftermath of the exploded plane from the scene from the 2001 movie 3000 Miles to Graceland starring Kevin Costner and Kurt Russell. Click here for a YouTube link to the scene https://youtu.be/NTuSFRFsaWM — Eldorado Canyon Mine Tours (this is aftermath of the exploded plane from the scene from the 2001 movie **3000 Miles to Graceland** starring Kevin Costner and Kurt Russell. Click here for a YouTube link to the scene https://youtu.be/NTuSFRFsaWM

By 9am though, it was time to get on with the mine tour. Our guide was Joe, he was the son of the owners. Quite a colorful character. He talked about the history of the area, the history of the mine, how gold was mined back in the day, and some of the townsfolk, and some of the notorious people to live and work in the mines. I had my doubts which stories were true and which were tall tales. I guess it didn’t much matter. It was all very interesting.

He said the name Techatticup was derived from the Indian word for “eat” or “food”, something like that. Prospectors would hold up a piece of white quartz and ask if they’d seen this (gold could be found inside the quartz). They’d reply with “Techatticup”, meaning they wanted food for info. The miners would give them food and the Indians took the miners to the quartz which held the gold. So it was named Techatticup Mines. It’s pronounced Tee-chat-hiccup with a soft “h” (I had to ask).

Inside the mines. Eldorado Canyon Mine Tours — Inside the mines.
Eldorado Canyon Mine Tours

Inside the mines. Left over tools. Eldorado Canyon Mine Tours — Inside the mines. Left over tools.
Eldorado Canyon Mine Tours

Inside the mines. Prop skeleton I’m quite sure, but what could easily happen to you if you did something stupid.Eldorado Canyon Mine Tours — Inside the mines. Prop skeleton I’m quite sure, but what could easily happen to you if you did something stupid.
Eldorado Canyon Mine Tours

After the tour was over I photographed some more of the interesting grounds. As it was mid-day, I converted everything into black and white. Light was much too harsh in color. When most everyone else had left, I went inside to give the guide a tip. Having only $20’s in my purse, I went looking for something to buy. A t-shirt, bag, water bottle, or even a sticker - something with the mine’s name on it, a little memento of my visit here. Nothing. They had a table of antiques for sale. Not quite what I was looking for, but I found a neat looking old padlock with a skeleton key. Only $15 so I bought it and had enough change to give the guide $5, and an original souvenir.

I headed back to the camper. I was supposed to be going over to Valley of Fire today, but I decided earlier that I was going to spend another night. I really liked the area and wanted to see if I could get some good light for tonight’s sunset. By now it had gotten pretty hot, about 90 F, but like they say, it’s a “dry heat”. Still pretty freeking hot, but I knew from yesterday that once the sun started to go down, it would cool off. I pulled out my laptop and downloaded my photos and backed them up, processed a few. Its not like I can do anything with them out here in the boonies. But just in case, I wanted them backed up. I had a pretty good view of my neighbor too. Saw him packing up and then he left. No more neighbor. I guess it’s just me tonight.

There’s old Jezebel, all by her lonesome, Eldorado Canyon mountains in the background.

Finally, the sun dipped lower than the height of my RV so I grabbed my lawn chair, and a guide book of Utah hikes I bought along to see if I can find something interesting for when I go, and sat outside shaded by the RV. There was a nice breeze and it was nice and comfy. Definitely something to this “dry heat”, beats the oppressive humidity in Florida for sure. I’m sure I’d change my tune come summertime when it gets to nearly 120 F. Dry or humid, that’s just awful hot.

By this time I was getting hungry so I thought I’d fry up some hamburgers for dinner. I went inside, washed my new frypan and got my burgers and cheese out of the fridge. I opened the stove cover and turned the knob to light the propane stovetop, and nothing… I tried the other burner, nothing. Shit… now what? I knew I should have bought that grill lighter at Walmart the day before. Oh well. What to eat? Tuna again! Tuna salad and a couple slices of pepper jack cheese; yum. (Glad I bought those cans of tuna!) Took my gourmet meal outside and watched the weekend traffic head back to Vegas or wherever they were from. There was nice breeze now, and it was pretty comfy. I also could see some wispy clouds to over the east. Maybe setting up for a great sunset tonight? Let’s hope!

When I finished eating I went inside and grabbed my camera, lenses, and tripod. Quite a few high clouds were hovering over the Black Mountains across the Colorado River and I was excited for a colorful sunset. I put my long lens on and was trying to isolate some specific areas of the mountains that were getting hit with dappled light, but the lens kept doing wonky things. Got a few shots but they didn’t really work. The lens had been doing weird things for a while, every so often, but now it was happening a lot.

Eldorado Canyon Mine and the sun glowing on the Black Mountains across the river in Arizona.

I changed lenses and put the 24-70 back on. The light was spectacular and I got the bright idea to do a timelapse of the sunset and the shadow falling over the mountains. I set it up for a half second interval. Hindsight says that was too short. You can barely see the clouds moving. Traffic and birds yes, but minimal cloud movement. As soon as that 300-shot series was over, I started another one up, this time with a 2 second interval. Unfortunately buy this time the light had pretty much faded and the clouds never kicked off. Skunked again.

Beautiful dappled light in and out shining on the not-so Black Mountains.

Timelapse video of the sun going down behind me, putting the mountains in front of me in shadow.

As soon as the timelapse was finished, I went to put my camera gear back in the RV, but to my left, the north, I could see a hint of pink in the gray clouds. So instead I turned to the north and photographed the bits of pink that were forming. Then it started to streak.

View to the north of the Eldorado Canyon mountains and bits of pink starting to glow on the gray clouds.

View to the north of the Eldorado Canyon mountains; pink streaks forming and getting more intense.

Curious what was happening to the west, I walked around the other side of the RV, and holy cow! It was like a neon cotton candy factory exploded! Bright pink streaks going all over. I quick grabbed my tripod, composed and got a few shots in of the beautiful sky behind the mountain. That beautiful pink only lasted a few minutes. The RV which shaded me from the hot sun, nearly hid a photographic gem! Glad I got up to check it out. Now I didn’t feel so bad the timelapse was a bust. I was one happy photographer!

View west of the neon pink sky over the Eldorado Canyon mountains.

With that being done, I went inside to get my images secured on the computer. I plugged my memory card in the laptop, downloaded the images to my hard drive, uploaded to Lightroom, and then backed them up to my second hard drive. The laptop battery was dwindling so I just did what I had to and shut it off. I may not get power if tomorrow I can’t find a proper campsite and I didn’t want to waste what battery life I had left.

I got ready for bed, put Edward Abbey audio book on my phone again, and hit the sack early, I think it was 9:30ish. I laid in bed and watched out the window while listening. Quite a bit of traffic heading back west for so late at night and remote of an area. Maybe I’m just getting old. lol

I really enjoyed my time here. But tomorrow I’d be on my way north, to the Valley of Fire State Park. Yay!