I am the sort of person that hears about an interesting place and thinks to myself; I have to go there. Unlike most people who think these fleeting thought, I actually get an idea in my head and I commit. Luckily for me there are many places to explore within a reasonable driving distance. I decided however to take a chance on a place called Bedrock City in Williams, AZ. Now, for those that may not be aware, Williams, AZ is literally in the middle of nowhere. 7 1/2 hours into the heart of nowhere to be exact and if you happen to be driving in the middle of the night or in the early hours of the morning before sunrise you can and will miss it, though that is a whole other story for a whole other blog.
Now I know you are thinking to yourself, 'Bedrock City... why does that sound so familiar?' and the quickest and easiest answer you reach is the likely one;it is the fictional city in which the beloved characters of your favorite Saturday morning cartoons 'The Flintstones' lived!
You can even camp in a designated area and there are bathrooms with showers
Fun Fact: did you know that a good deal of people think that the cartoon and movie was actually called 'The Finstones' and NOT 'The Flintstones'? Seriously there are over 31,000 photos on instagram hashtagged #flinstones and over 4,500 tagged #theflinstones, even when the word Flintstones is spelled out in the photo they took. Baffling. Moving right along...
Hanging right over the entryway to the gift shop and dinner
Bedrock City sounds like a wonderful mystical place that is bursting with energy and excitement right? Well sure, it sounds like that should be the case, but I am here to tell you that is far from the case in this eerie, creepy, and desolate roadside attraction in the literal-middle-of-nowhere. Now, don't get me wrong, this place was truly amazing and definitely a site to see, but if you come expecting it to be filled to the brim and bursting with life, you have come to the wrong place. Oddly enough, what is lacks for most people wanting to see a place like more than qualifies it as a place that I would adore!
So I had heard of Bedrock City many years ago, but to be honest it escapes me now where exactly, and I tell myself that one day I will go there. That 'one day' became the idea that sparked me to suggest it to my good friend Jen one day while I was at work. We both had been feeling the urge lately to get away and go on an adventure and we have been going on mini adventures together more and more in the last few months. It is really hard to find a friend that is up for the kind of weird things that i am into exploring, but it is helpful when that friend is also a photographer as well and appreciates little the shithole slices of america that I like to acquaint myself with. So I say randomly to Jen that it is too bad that we are letting her weekend off go to waste since she never has the full weekend off and that we could have gone to Bedrock City, with the text I send her the link to the yelp entry and she asks how far it is, I inform that it is 7 1/2 hours away and she replies "let's go!" Mind you, this is Mid-day Wednesday and we are talking about leaving 48 hours later. The plan happened so quickly and spawned into us driving into the night on friday after I see Coldcave, Soundgarden, and Nine Inch Nails (click here to read up on that backstory) straight to Bedrock City and then we realized how close we would be to the Grand Canyon (more on that in a follow up blog)and so this seemingly quick day trip because a full fledged weekend excursion.
We arrived to Bedrock City at 7:30am on Saturday and I had been up for 26 1/2 hours at that point. We talked all night, guzzled monsters, and were on a complete adrenaline high. I am truly impressed that we only stopped twice to pee and stretch. Anyhow we get to Bedrock and we figure that it is early so that must be why there is no one around and decide that it is a good idea to grad breakfast in their little diner inside where they off 50¢ cups of coffee. Walking through what served as a creepy gift shop we come into the tiny dinner in the back and proceed to stuff our faces a little too quickly. Once full and brains functioning on a semi-normal basis we head to the car to load up our camera gear and head in.
Entrance to gift shop and dinner
Admission is $5 and you have to go through a little turnstile to get there. Once inside you can hear muffled sounds over a loudspeaker somewhere near by and see the desolate fabrI inform that it is 7 1/2 hours away and she replies "let's go!" Mind you, this is Mid-day Wednesday and we are talking about leaving 48 hours later. The plan happened so quickly and spawned into us driving into the night on friday after I see Coldcave, Soundgarden, and Nine Inch Nails (click here to read up on that backstory) straight to Bedrock City and then we realized how close we would be to the Grand Canyon (more on that in a follow up blog)and so this seemingly quick day trip because a full fledged weekend excursion.
We arrived to Bedrock City at 7:30am on Saturday and I had been up for 26 1/2 hours at that point. We talked all night, guzzled monsters, and were on a complete adrenaline high. I am truly impressed that we only stopped twice to pee and stretch. Anyhow we get to Bedrock and we figure that it is early so that must be why there is no one around and decide that it is a good idea to grad breakfast in their little diner inside where they off 50¢ cups of coffee. Walking through what served as a creepy gift shop we come into the tiny dinner in the back and proceed to stuff our faces a little too quickly. Once full and brains functioning on a semi-normal basis we head to the car to load up our camera gear and head in.
Admission is $5 and you have to go through a little turnstile in the gift shop to get there. Once inside you can hear muffled sounds over a loudspeaker somewhere near by and see the desolate fabricated stone-age town before you, but there is no life, just a strange and eerie feeling that washes over you. It's the kind of feeling you get when you know that a place never really lived up to its potential. Just a weird little piece of Americana gone wrong. Well, gone right to me, but mostly gone wrong to most people coming here expecting some sort of amusement park feel.
However...
I brought along my digital camera as well as my Fuji Instax 210 and my Polaroid 103 Land Camera, but it seemed to me that this place was meant to be photographed in analog so I only shot my Land Camera while I was there. We spend a total of 4 hours there photographing and exploring this strange little place and it is hard to put into words the feeling that you walk away having gone to place like that other than knowing one day, in the probable near future, this place will no longer exist. Or maybe it will be abandoned and it will be an even bigger excuse to come back. For as empty and weird as this place was it is nicely maintained. There is even a theatre that has a benches inside where they loop old Flintstone episodes, but unfortunately the day before there was a thunderstorm and it flooded the place so the episodes were not playing. Just random conversations over the loudspeaker next to the building. Also, there was one single living thing there and it was a goat, just one goat all by itself in a cage. I couldn't bring myself to go over there knowing that he was here all day long by himself without even a friend in his sizable cage. In the entire 4 hours we were there 6 other people fluttered in and out of there, likely on their way to the Grand Canyon, thinking that they were going to get a treat by stopping by, they all seemed greatly disappointed.
Though...
The one character i didn't get a photo of was Dino, but that was because he was positioned under a tree with horrible shadows cast over him.
The rest of this set can be found here.
On the way out I took a selfie of me and Jen on my iPhone inside the volcano.
I am really glad I made this silly idea a reality, it definitely was an amazing weekend that left me feeling inspired and recharged. However, this was only the beginning. Though that is along blog for another day.
The adventure continues...
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