Paradise of Outlaws

"[Phoenix] was no longer the legendary city of 1849--a city of banditti, assassins, and incendiaries, who had flocked hither in crowds in pursuit of plunder; a paradise of outlaws, where they gambled with gold-dust, a revolver in one hand and a bowie-knife in the other: it was now a great commercial emporium."
-Passepartout, Around the World in Eighty Days

Sometimes people say the west is no longer wild. Road, rail, barbed wired, these innovations conquered the west in short order, paving the way for the sprawling metropolis here today. Canals were dug to turn the hard scrabble desert town into a lush oasis, well known for its golf venues.

Those people don't get out much. Maybe they haven't crawled across desert sand after the water ran out hours ago, counting the chances, as their mouth became uncomfortably, then painfully dry. Or maybe they haven't turned the corner in a steep sided canyon only to hear the faint sounds of floodwaters crashing towards them. Or maybe they never climbed a mountain only to find, near the summit, a doorway, slightly ajar, just begging you to step into the fathomless inky black tunnels beyond. Maybe they never heard the siren's call of lost gold from just beyond the peaks of impenetrable mountain ranges.

But when I drove into Phoenix for the first time, I did hear that call and it drove me to explore this place at every opportunity. At night when I climbed in the city's mountain parks and saw the lights of Phoenix's much maligned sprawl stretched in every direction, nearly as far as the eye could see, I felt a wild hum fill the air. Out there were still the crowds of banditti, assassins, and incendiaries, and Team Crowbar had found a place among them in the paradise of outlaws.

-2016-
bayou goula towhead

-2015-
the sea test

-2014-
the circumnavigator pt5
the circumnavigator pt4
the circumnavigator pt3
the circumnavigator pt2
the circumnavigator pt1
falling dream
the darkness
one hell of a mile 3&4
he will return
the believers
the horror pt2
the horror pt1
traces
death valley
whiteout

-2013-
paradise of outlaws
the mountain climbers 1&2
brought to surface
one hell of a mile 3
primordial
the lost world
inner gorge
a ghost story
the riddle
slaying the minotaur
heart of darkness
bayou
public lands
organ music
two sought adventure
the virgin river
the road north
preparations

-2012-
steal the world
the end of the world
el dorado
the valley of the kings 2
the valley of the kings 1
one hell of a mile 2
one hell of a mile 1
the mountain climbers rr4
heroes rr3
rainy roadtrip 2
rainy roadtrip 1
the transgression
sandstorm
sinister 2
sinister 1
dehydrated
anatomy
sleepwalking
new chapter

-2011-
like sedona?
torn in two
blink
bridge to nowhere
the door
hitting the wall
elusive 2
elusive 1
harquahala
hole
pick up lines

-2010-
revisited 2
revisited 1
which way?
lost mines
chute
monolith
freeze
slice
in their footsteps
a dance with death

-2009-
goodbyes
undercurrents
casting the bones
mountain thief
the deer hunter
strange temple
sanctuary
burial pt. 3
burial pt. 2
burial pt. 1
the apparition
return to hell
forsaken
the lower depths
underground lake
stretch sewer
the hidden lab
shadow movements
meager rations
sw8: the conclusion
sw7: lost gold mines
sw6: the big tubes
sw5: gold!
sw4: el calderon
sw3: redondo
sw2: ghosts
sw1: westward bound
leviathan
formaldehyde dreams
the underdark
in the beginning