The kind folks at The Daily Post at WordPress challenge us photographers to be eerie this week. And that challenge takes me to the most eerie place I know – The Baker Hotel. Located about an hour from the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex in a town called Mineral Wells (and yes, they do sell Crazy Water). A once regal landmark of luxury, attracting stars and visitors from across the globe, now stands in decay. A grand token of days gone by, its majesty deflated. The massive ruins in such a small town sticks out even more in its gruesome state. A state that yearns for renewal.
It is this place I visited last year, during a cold snap and full moon. The post of my midnight ghost run got Freshly Pressed for creepiness – The Baker Hotel Ghost Walk – on Halloween.
After our ghost hunt, I kid you not, I slept with the lights on for a week. But I told myself…one day, I will return to face those ghosts in the day. Because surely, it would be so much better with all the lights on.
And isn’t that ironic? Because, the Ghost Adventure Guys got their best EVP of the episode – in the day.
And in the day I returned….
And it is still as creepy as ever. And I still cringe to walk anywhere near the boarded up windows.
But I do.
I walked all around the building. Peaking through broken walls, taking photos, and not having any focus or camera malfunctions whatsoever.
I did not smell lavender. I did not capture a disembodied head. And I didn’t hear anyone telling me to drink the water.
In all honesty, I didn’t want to walk around taking photos of this monstrosity, but at the same time, I couldn’t NOT take photos of this monstrosity.
Image below – a window wasn’t quite boarded up on the mezzanine level. I peaked in and snapped a photo. It was pitch black inside. It was pitch black on my LCD screen. I had no idea what could be in the photo. I lightened it up later, and was grateful not to see anything in the image. I think?
But I am not looking that hard either.
The Baker Hotel did not disappoint. As eerie as it was in the dead of the night, it was just as eerie in the eve of the sun.
There is just something about it that makes you unable to look away.
We got out of there before night fell.
That was another promise I made to myself.
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