Saturday Trip-Casa Grande Domes

So between my day job's restraints during the week and spending time with the family, I've found that in a given week I only have Saturday and sometimes Sunday mornings to go out and take photographs.

So for the past 3 or 4 weeks I've gotten up at 5AM on Saturdays and sometimes on Sundays, to go out and take photographs, sometimes with a plan in mind, and sometimes without a plan. Therefore I have decided to make an effort to keep this up at least every Saturday and write about the experience while publishing the photos. Go out with or without a plan. Hope you like it.

It was Friday this week already and I still hadn't decided which location to visit and take photographs the following day. A couple days ago a colleague of mine had recommended I visit Downtown Gilbert, saying houses and streets there were pretty and interesting. This was the same colleague who had recommended I take a more scenic route when I decided to go to Gila Bend a few weeks back, so I trusted her recommendations. I thought to myself, if all else fails, I'll go there.

I was at work and I decided to google "weird places to take photographs in arizona" and I eventually landed on this article/blog:

Needless to say all those places spiked my interest, but some of the places on the list were a little too far for a quick day trip. So I went to sleep last night thinking I was either going to go to Casa Grande Domes or Downtown Gilbert.

One of the things that arbitrarily setting your departure time to 5AM does, regardless of the location your driving to or the time of year, sunrise will occur at unplanned locations. These past two trips, sunrise happened while on the highway, so with this notion I decided on the Casa Grande Domes, so I could catch a sunrise in the open highway instead of city streets.

Now sunrise happens relatively fast, so I had but a few moments to decide which location to shoot from, passing by too fast what I realized too late was a perfect location, and not having enough time to exit, u-turn, exit, u-turn again, I had to forgive myself for missing that opportunity, slowing down and settled on the 2nd best location I could find.

As I had my fill of the sunrise, mindful I had stopped on the side of the highway for this, I resumed my trip and after a quick pit-stop at a Casa Grande gas station, I made it to the Casa Grande Domes shortly after.

I had to park across the road from the domes, as the dome's lot had a fence and "no trespassing signs".

As I step out from my car, I see the desert all the way to the western horizon, an azure blue sky, the only sound the steady blow of the wind, still carrying the night's chill. As I turn around, I see blocks arranged around what was a bonfire pit, littered with torn cast-off pieces of clothing, clear signs that people sometimes come here.

Facing east, the domes across the road.

It's not exactly the middle of nowhere because I had passed some farms on my way here, but I'm suddenly aware that the closest human being is a mile or so away, unless maybe, someone has been using the domes as a place to rest or live.

I start my path to cross the road and before I cross to find my way into the lot, I'm stopped by the sight of the sun rising behind a tree that I take some pictures of it.

As I walk across the road I realize that finding my way into the lot was going to be a lot easier than I first thought. A section of the wire fence, had the three bard wires conveniently tied together to make stepping over it easier, a clear sign people come to this lot at times.

I take one of my headphones off so I can listen for signs of life within.

My first shots are taken from the perimeter at first, wanting to get a feel for the place first, but my gaze and steps keep being drawn to the abandoned dome-like structures scattered in front of me.

They were supposed to have been a computer production facility or something like that back in the 70's or 80's, but abandoned before being completed. It is strange to walk among what was conceived as futuristic design, decades later crumbling, with graffiti, litter and refuse.

As I'm drawn inwards, I make my way to the closest dome entrance and peep inside (after taking some pictures of the entrance itself first).

As I realize this dome is empty I step in more comfortable, and start taking pictures on the inside.

I get lost in trances, visually exploring the strange and unique influx of circumstances that have painted this scene, and get pulled from my trances suddenly aware of a need to proceed with caution.

Although I was treading lightly, mindful of the noise I was making, I hear some pebbles scatter behind me which makes me turn immediately around, and am assaulted by the hustle being bounced back at me from every direction.

I realize these domes are strangely acoustic, allowing me to calm down, as I'm pulled away again into the visuals of these urban caverns once more.

As I'm exploring this first dome, lost in trance, an awareness pulled me from trance, that from within these domes, you are effectively unaware of the outside. Inside the dome, its hard to notice if anyone is walking outside, or has stopped on the road, etc.

I make my way out form the first dome, from a different entrance, and make my way up to the next chain of domes. These domes still had most of their roof, so they were darker on the inside.

I took some landscape style pictures, but I also played around with foreground and background shapes.

Within one of them I see a rocking chair near one of the walls....

I walk around, in and out of the structures, peeping into corners, completely immersed in the experience, listening to a steady stream of songs shuffled from my "liked from radio" playlist. I'm bilingual so my playlist invited guests into my experience from different countries and cultures. Blind Melon, followed by Cafe Tacuba, then by Zoe, then by Beck, then Gusana Ciega, Led Zeppelin, Jack White, Miles Davis, Zurdok, etc.

Music, the open desert, retro-futuristic abandoned buildings and yes, an open book:

All in all, it was an unique experience. The remoteness, the abandon, the open desert, sunrise, graffiti, signs of recent human activity, "no trespassing" signs, what the future looked like at some point in history, all came together for me this past Saturday, I'm grateful.