We left town early morning, driving through small towns, open lands, and mountain passes. Our first real stop: Bodie, WA. But to get there, we had to travel through Sherman Pass.

Entering the pass was startling. The area is surrounded by forest, however, the forest was fire touched, and all that was remaining were acres upon acres upon miles of burned trees. This is portrayed slightly in one of the above photos.

The site was devastating and a reminder of how powerful nature can be, but also heartbreaking. It was surprising to see such a swath of devastation. This was most likely due to the Hope fire in 2025.

Bodie is an old ghost town in Okanagan county. This is one of the larger ghost towns I have been across, thus far. The buildings are still standing, though some only have the top portion remaining or are more inset into the ground. While highly not recommended, the buildings are standing in such a way they can be entered. The floor boards are weak and nature has started to take over. Trees grew where living rooms and bedrooms once stood, vines twisted through the ceiling, collapsing the boards within, old bed frames sat on the ground, springs exposed. In one house, the second floor had newer graffiti and the stairs leading up were rotted through. Everything was touched by age and felt like a scene out of “The Giver.”

Once we explored Bodie, we continued on. Originally, our plan was to check out Cheesaw and then Molson. We also planned to stop in Nighthawk, before heading home.

Driving through Cheesaw, the town is still inhabited, though the buildings are old. We did not stop in Cheesaw, though there were a couple interesting photographic possibilities. A teen sat on the steps to an old tavern, looking through her phone. This was a stark contrast on the empty street and old buildings, as Cheesaw is an old town with a low population. There was also a biker near the tavern, another interesting contrast that actually made me contemplate a photo shoot in front of an old tavern with hitching posts and bikers “hitching” their motorcycles to the post. Even better if wearing cowboy hats and full bike leathers.

After Cheesaw, we came across Molson. Molson made the entire trip worth it. Molson is an old farming town near the border of Canada. There are a number of buildings standing and preserved. At one point, there were more, however they were burned down some years ago.

The town had old signs advising to go to customer, a bank with an old press, a few houses, a windmill pointing towards Spokane, and a lot of old farm equipment. An interesting note is that there are two newer farms nearby, which you can see the new equipment versus rusted columbines, broken down horse drawn carts and the like.

As a photographic journey, this was a fun one and allowed for some of my favorite angles and beautiful contrast.