Driveways

Driveway
Monument Valley region
Arizona
April 2008

Along the small highways in the deserts of Arizona and Utah, there are long winding driveways leading to clusters of houses and cars. I found myself entranced by their mysteriousness, but more than a little afraid of the unknowns, wondering who lives down there? Do they own guns? Will they shoot me if I drive down their driveway?

Are they natives? Or a cult? Or a religious sect? What are they protecting or hiding?

People hide out in the west for all kinds of reasons. Some of them aren't hiding at all. But how can you know?

At the moment I took this photo, it was as likely that I'd venture down this driveway as I would have climbed into the Egyptian Room with the mummy cases at the public library when I was on a class field trip in grade school. Meaning, I was spooked, and as soon as I took this shot, I jumped back into the jeep and raced down the highway. I told myself that I was saving any possible thread of courage for my next journey and my next post.