When the opportunity to join the founders of The Photo Frontier (www.thephotofrontier.com), Armando Martinez (www.armandom.com) and Justin Balog (www.justinbalog.com) , on an expedition how could I pass that up? For one, the time alone to observe and learn from 2 great creatives is reason enough to join any adventure they may invite you on. Second, the proposed adventure plain and simply sounded fun and it did not disappoint. The expedition was an amazing photographic journey through the barren desert of Southwest Utah and Southern Nevada in search of Paranormal and Extraterrestrial activity. Click here for the official expedition report. The following is my photographic story of the trip from start to end.
The Expedition started in Las Vegas where we met our guide, Nate Cowlishaw (TalkingTree.org), a MUFON certified researcher. MUFON is the Mutual UFO Network and their mission is "The Scientific Study of UFO's for the Benefit of Humanity". So you can see that Nate was the perfect guide and a really good dude. After all parties were present and accounted for we saddled up and hit the open road. On our way out of Vegas to Ceder City, UT for the night we skipped the strip and instead cruised down historic Fremont St.
Day 1 took us through the towns of Lund, Beryl and Modena UT with a stop at Catheral Gorge State Park in Nevada on our way to Pioche, NV. In Pioche we stayed at the Overland Hotel, famous for its paranormal activity. As much I hoped to capture ghostly figures in at least one photo, I even used an Instax film camera thinking I would have better luck with that, I was disappointed yet relieved to have not experienced anything out of the norm.
On day 2 we left Pioche, headed for Rachel, NV off of Extraterrestrial Highway and just outside of the US Air Force installation known simply as Area 51. Throughout the trip leading to Area 51 we learned about Bob Lazar, the famous Area 51 whistleblower, from Nate. We also met other visitors to the LITTLE A'LE'INN and listened to interesting stories relating to alien activity.
The final day took us back to Vegas to catch our flights home with an unplanned stop at Hoover Dam. We returned home with our own stories of a great trip albeit without experiencing anything from out of this world.
To Nate, thank you for putting together a great tour and to Armando and Justin, thank you for inviting me on this journey.
Credits:
Michael McLean Photography