A trip to Meteor City, Arizona

The I40 going east across Arizona to New Mexico parallels the historic Route 66, and vestiges of the past remain. A geodesic dome with a yellow painted mohawk is hard to miss, its globe an echo of the huge meteorite crater nearby whose tourists the trading post formerly shared. The highway spirits you past, tries to keep you in pace within a convoy of thundering big rigs, so to get to it, and you have to turn off and onto unkempt smaller byroads.

Totally abandoned and with every pane of glass broken, the murals graffitied, all the damage that can be done here by human beings has already been done. Now relentless nature adds its touch, the decay exacerbated by the winds that blow constantly across the plain. Whimsical has turned malevolent as an oversized broken dream catcher catches nothing but dust and exhaust fumes. Does a broken dreamcatcher carry bad dreams?

Text and photo Hannah Bhuiya

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter