I was driving west on I-10 from my home near Houston. My destination was Amboy, California—a former ghost town on a long bypassed section of old Route 66. But I remembered that Texas had its own forgotten places, and just south of Van Horn lay Lobo, a Lone Star ghost town in the Chihuahuan Desert. It was only an 18-minute detour off my route, a small price to pay for the chance to capture another piece of the past.
Arriving at Lobo near sunset, the quiet was almost absolute. The town, if you could call it that, was little more than a collection of sun-bleached, dilapidated buildings scattered across the flat, open land. The dry air carried the faint scent of sagebrush, and every so often, the wind would carry the distant call of a bird. As an introvert, the solitude felt welcoming, like the landscape was an extension of my own need for quiet reflection.
I found myself drawn to the old gas station with its peeling white and rust-red paint. The mural on the wall stopped me in my tracks. In bold letters, it read, “KEEP THE LONELY PLACES LONELY.” I felt a pang of understanding, an unspoken bond between the artist’s message and my own affinity for these desolate places. It was a sentiment that resonated deeply with me. Perhaps this is why I love these long, solo road trips. There’s a comfort in solitude, in exploring places left behind by others.
The colors in the sky began to shift as the sun dipped lower, casting a vibrant, warm glow over everything. I set up my camera, waiting for that perfect moment when the sky would erupt in hues of pink, purple, and orange. The decaying gas station, the dried yucca plants standing like silent sentinels, the mural—everything seemed to align in a quiet beauty that was both haunting and peaceful.
The only sounds were the whisper of the wind against the cracked metal and the soft rustle of dry grass. As I clicked the shutter, I felt like I was capturing not just a photograph, but a piece of myself—a reminder of why I come to these forgotten places. For those who seek the lonely places, Lobo is a testament to stillness, a reminder of the beauty found only when you wander off the beaten path.
