\u201cIf I drove past an abandoned place on the side of the road, I had the desire — always — to stop and check it out,\u201d Lacy said.<\/p>\n
Since moving to the West Coast about 10 years ago and founding The Abandoned Project, Lacy has criss-crossed California getting shots of some of the most secret and hard-to-reach places that lay in beautiful decay.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think everybody — at least some part of them — has a little bit of morbid curiosity [about] these places… It\u2019s the same thing with people loving zombie movies,\u201d Lacy told LAist.<\/p>\n
This year Lacy released a book of his travels in the California desert that covers mining ghost towns, massive wooden railway bridges, a deserted waterpark and more.<\/p>\n
‘Unique desert decay’ <\/p>\n
\u201cDeserted Dreams: California\u2019s Abandoned Oasis<\/a>\u201d captures about 10 years of Lacy\u2019s work in California, including photographing Lake Dolores Waterpark (later called Rock-A-Hoola Waterpark), an abandoned attraction off of the 15 Freeway in the Mojave Desert. Originally opened in the 1960s, it\u2019s said to have been one of America\u2019s first waterparks<\/a>.<\/p>\n The abandoned Rock-A-Hoola Waterpark <\/p>\n But it\u2019s been closed for more than two decades now, after injuries, lawsuits and bankruptcy led to its demise.<\/p>\n Now it\u2019s home to rusting signs covered in graffiti and massive pools overtaken by skaters.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way that things deteriorate in the desert is just incredible,\u201d Lacy said. \u201cWith the sand and the sun and the wind and the way that rain hits that area, it\u2019s really unique.\u201d<\/p>\n Lacy said one of his favorite chapters in the book covers The Impossible Railroad, a deserted rail line that leads to the largest wooden trestle bridge ever made. That\u2019s if you can manage a roughly 18-mile roundtrip hike through the desert. It\u2019s a trek Lacy said has been deadly for some and he doesn\u2019t recommend trying it if you\u2019re an inexperienced hiker or unprepared.<\/p>\n The Goat Canyon Trestle Bridge <\/p>\n The Goat Canyon Trestle bridge, at a length of around 700 feet, is widely considered the world\u2019s largest wooden trestle bridge.<\/p>\n Lacy said, while it may sound a bit cheesy, he lives by the motto of \u201cTake only pictures, leave only footprints.\u201d And he doesn\u2019t typically share exact locations of some of the sites he visits, which he said take countless hours of research and travel to find.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to be really careful of the intentions of people,\u201d Lacy said. \u201cA lot of people will go there just to destroy things, or they want to rip the copper pipes out of the wall to make some money. Or they like to burn things.\u201d<\/p>\n An abandoned locomotive on The Impossible Railroad<\/p>\n A lot of places Lacy has visited — in the California desert especially — are gone forever, either through natural decay or human involvement.<\/p>\n Lacy, who works in social media in the travel and tourism space, lamented the loss of one of his favorite motels in the California desert that he said he\u2019d visited a dozen times.<\/p>\n He said he saw it go through a fire, different stages of decay and it eventually was torn down.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was kind of an emotional thing because I had almost grown with this place over 10 years and loved to document it, loved to photograph, loved to visit it and see how it had changed. And it\u2019s gone now,\u201d Lacy said.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s important to see these places and to document them before they\u2019re gone completely.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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