Story and photographs by Edward Fielding (edwardfielding.com)
Coming out of the backroad so full of promise yet a bit of a disappointment. Started out with the old decaying sets of the TV Western series “Gunsmoke”.
The path taken was mostly unimproved hard gravel and sun-caked clay. Dust filled the review mirror. No other vehicle was spotted until an unlikely 18-wheeler pulled out of the end of a long ranch driveway. The gate held the name of it but it was forgettable.
The television series of Gunsmoke ran from 1955 to 1975 and is said to be one of the longest-running prime-time shows on television. There were 635 episodes and many of the outdoor scenes for this show were shot in Johnson Canyon near Kanab, Utah. The setting of Gunsmoke is Dodge City, Kansas during the 1870s. A replica of the Hollywood set was created just three miles outside of Kanab. This Johnson Canyon movie set is perhaps the largest movie set constructed in the Kanab area. It can still be viewed from the road but is not accessible due to its state of general disrepair.
“This road goes somewhere right?” she asked.
“Maps says it comes out near our motel” he replied.
There was a hit of disbelief in his voice. “I sure hope it does,” he thought to himself imagining the grief he would get if it didn’t.
He never did live down that time he almost took a wrong turn and would have ended up on the ferry to Novia Scotia.
“We can always turn around,” he said quietly knowing full well he would pilot this car to the Mexican border before admitting to any mistake in navigation.
Besides, you could point your car in any direction and find some beautiful scenery and interesting things to see in this part of America.
At least to a photographer like himself. Old abandoned cabins, rusty old cars, bits and pieces of the past, preserved under the dry Utah sun.
These photographic safaris were always a mix of planning and discovery. You can only plan so much if one is interested in finding unique subjects that others pass by at 55 MPH.
The idea that one might blow a tire on some backroad far from the likes of AA or an Uber if one could even get a cell phone signal.
Rattlesnakes in the grass, angry bull in the field, rabid dogs, sharp cactus spikes, ticks, mosquitos, choking dust, good old boys having fun honking at the city slickers — it’s all part of the sense of danger which comes with hunting for photographs while on safari.
The car is pointed in the general direction. At some distance, the halfway point is made the long unpaved backroad. No turning back now.
We’ve seen everything to this point – and it was a whole lot of nothing. Something more interesting must be around the next bend.
Two Old Friends 
National Park Photography 
Vintage American Cars 
Old abandoned cars in Utah. Fine art photograph by Edward M. Fielding. 
Roadside Attraction, Utah 
Roadside America Utah Attraction Outside Of Zion https://edward-fielding.pixels.com/featured/roadside-america-utah-attraction-outside-of-zion-edward-fielding.html 
Grafton Ghost Town in Grafton, Utah by Wendy Fielding 
Bryce Canyon at Sunrise by Edward M. Fielding 
Old Cars At A Junkyard Utah 
Chair by the window – abandoned home in Grafton Ghost Town, Rockville, Utah 
Nearly back to the motel, something wonderful did appear after the last turn and dip of the old dusty road – a car lot of vintage cars.
Beautiful old American cars preserved in a state of slow decay under the Southwestern sun. Age-old patina, space-age lines, fins, suicide doors, big-block engines, cracked windshields, steel belt exposed evaporated rubber tires…the texture of another time.
Photographs of Utah by fine art photographer Edward Fielding