Macabre Blog – Talking about Wickedly Decadent items

The Macabre staff went to visit the Grand Canyon. We tried to do this years ago with a couple friends and mistakenly went to the North Rim which it turns out is closed in Winter – to this day we will swear that there was a giant tarp over the canyon to close it and just refuse to believe it really existed (ok just silly hyperbole but you get the point)

We traveled to the South Rim (open year round)  figuring that the crowds would be a lot smaller in the cooler weather. Being from the northeast our intrepid staff had no issues with the temperatures. A daytime temp of 46 was still warmer than December back in the mid-Atlantic.

We camped in Mather Campground the first night, burned some wood, had some cocktails in the woods and then set out the next day along the Desert View drive to see all the overlooks of the canyon culminating with the Desert View tower.

I wish that the camera could really show the scale and depth of the canyon. There are points where, from the rim to the river at the bottom, the elevation changes by as much as 5,000 feet.

The colors are spectacular and we saw a lot of cool wildlife – at one point a herd of deer wandered along the road stalling traffic. We saw the biggest crows we’ve ever seen in our lives. These things were almost the size of our dog and utterly fearless. They would come into our camp looking for scraps and not flee even when a human with a dog approached them. We kept seeing signs for mountain lions but none ever showed their faces.

The Desert View tower is a spectacular structure which is modern but made to look like ancient native construction. It has 5 floors with views of the canyon but you better be in shape to climb all the steps – which by the way are very narrow and gave Media Minion a real challenge with his size 12 feet. It’s full of traditional art, actual artifacts and there were even a couple Hopi craftsmen in the lobby level demonstrating their craft.

If you ever get the chance to visit the canyon – do so;  you’ll love it.
We hope to do a trip to the West Rim at some point and Media Minion would love to go down into the canyon someday.

As always, click on an image for a larger version.

Media Minion takes HORRIBLE selfies.

The Macabre Mercantile staff decided on an excursion that was not so spooky. We traveled to the northern side of Vegas to beautiful Floyd Lamb park at Tule Springs.

This is a historic 2,040-acre (830 ha) park in Las Vegas, Nevada. The park is centered on Tule Springs, a series of small lakes that formed an oasis in this part of the Mojave Desert. One of the larger urban retreats in the Las Vegas Valley, Tule Springs was once considered to be far out of town but is now encroached by development. The park includes the Tule Springs Ranch, Tule Springs Archaeological Site, Tule Springs Wash and four ponds available for fishing. (from Wikipedia)

We love going there just to enjoy nature and look at the cool animals. There are peacocks galore, geese, ducks, rabbits and this time we even spotted a road runner.
We took a couple pictures of peacocks and rabbits but the road runner was WAY too fast for a good picture and the geese were busy chasing each other to get to the ranger with the food so no pics there.
We also visited the historic adobe house which used to serve as a way point back in the old days.

The Macabre Mercantile staff decided to take a road trip on Wednesday; 223 miles each way no less. Why such a long trip you ask? Was it to secure new wickedly decadent items for the store? Was it to visit some well heeled client?

Nope. It was a trip to see a Clown Motel. I know, creepy huh?

The Macabre Van traveled to Tonopah, NV in search of a site we had heard of but couldn’t believe was real. Along the way we discovered an Area 51 gas station, the (mostly) ghost town of Goldfield, NV and finally the crowning achievement the Clown Motel.

Goldfield was quite the place to visit. We could have taken hundreds of pictures but we didn’t have the time to really wander about. Media Minion suggested if he ever wanted to really got a good site for a horror story and do his own version of Stephen King at the Overlook Hotel, he’d rent a room for a week or so at one of the scary motels and start writing – frankly we think he’d become desert cannibal food.

Here’s some pictures of our journey.

The Macabre staff went exploring their new area today. We were in search of ghost towns near Las Vegas and we found a doozy.

When I say doozy I don’t mean it was great.

The Chloride Mining Town in Chloride, AZ is listed as a ghost town. Well it is definitely a dead town. There are very few inhabitants and  not much to really see for a tourist destination. There were some really old (early 1900) buildings like the Post Office and an Antique store but the highlight of the visit was an old west main street (totally fake BTW). It was something right out of a bad spaghetti western as imagined by a bunch of high school students who weren’t that great at set building.

We saw that they have a ‘gunfight’ every 2nd and 3rd Saturday – unfortunately it was Sunday so we didn’t get a show but Kali (our black dog and goddess of death) enjoyed wandering around.

Our Crypt Queen had to pose in front of the Mercantile, of course…..

While disappointing as a ghost town, it was still a fun outing. We bought some souvenirs so we never need to go back.