Visiting Chloride and the Murals

Friday was going to be a nice day - not too hot and no winds so we decided to go to Chloride to see the murals. About a 30 mile drive from the campground. 

Off of the 93 on to the road to Chloride. 
Chloride was a mining town in the late 1800's. More than 50 mines operated around the small town of Chloride producing gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc. this dusty town was once bustling and 2,000 people once called this tiny town home. Today around 250 residents call Chloride home. The town is considered Arizona's oldest continuously inhabited mining town.

Just before entering the town. A fence made of rusted junk. It was interesting to see.

More of the fence, kind of set the tone of what the town was about.

Old building and sign.

We were here to go see the Murals of Chloride. Done in 1966 by Roy Purcell who was a local prospector with time on his hands. Called "The Journey" they cover over 2,000 square feet of cliffside granite. They are dense in symbolism, featuring a yin yang, a fertility goddess and a big red snake that spans multiple rocks. The Chloride Murals were restored from their 1960's condition in 2006 by the same artist, now widely known for his western etchings and other art which he refined while working as a curator for the Southern Nevada Museum in Henderson, Nevada  
To get there we had to drive about 3 1/2 miles of dirt road. Glad the Jeep is a high clearance vehicle. And luckily there were signs pointing the direction to follow.

Another branch of the road and another arrow pointing the way.

One of the better parts of the road.

More directions.

At one point there was a fork in the road with no arrows pointing the way. The yellow square is where the murals are. The town is on the far left of the picture. The green line follows, kind of, the dirt road. The fork that wasn't marked started at the red line. We took the red line for a ways before realizing we shouldn't be on that road even in the Jeep. Luckily There was a wide spot where Bill could turn around. I really have to thank him for all the driving he did on this trip. Just so I could take pictures to share.

So here are a couple of dash cam videos. Each part is about five minutes long. Part 1 is up to the fork. To watch it full screen click here.

So many flowers were blooming in the desert.

In the previous picture see the thing on the rock on the horizon. This is what it is. Natural or??

 Just more plants

And here we are going up the WRONG road until we could turn around. Then back to the right road and finding the murals.  Again to see it full screen click here.

And we were there! 

Just a teaser. These rock are huge. Can't imagine how he got them painted.

Next blog will be about the murals. 
Today the high here in Vegas will only be 66 so I am going to bake some bread. Last night I made corned beef, potatoes, carrots and cabbage. Delicious - and was great to have a "real" meal.