The Beauty and Sadness of Salton Sea, California

It has not been "all work and no play" for us as we do manage to get out to do some exploring and sightseeing between our painting and renos.  Before heading to Salton Sea on the 6th I wanted to go to Calipatria to have a look at Salvation Mountain.  I was intrigued more than anything to visit this national folk art site which Leonard Knight started to construct in 1984.  It is 50 feet in height and 150 foot in length and is made totally of local adobe clay and donated paint.  It has these corky but amazing igloo-like structures and of course this large 'mountain' all of which show Leonard's devotion and love of God. 

 

The town that you must go through to Salvation Mountain has this

very old jail - had to stop and take a quick pic

Slab City just before Salvation Mountain

The entrance sign

Salvation Mountain

The view from the top of the mountain

 Everything on these grounds are painted - even the trucks



Closer view of the trucks

Entering one of the 'igloos'

Inside he had painted some blue birds on the ceiling

This was his message to everyone

Leonard Knight 1931-2014

 

From Salvation Mountain we carried on our journey to Salton Sea.  It has so much beauty and sadness all rolled in one. In it's hay day it was the place to go for the rich and famous but with a drying up sea it now leaves abandoned homes at Bombay Beach.  As you walk along the shores of Bombay Beach you can feel and hear the crunching of the many fish bones.  Due to the high salinity, very few fish species can tolerate living in the Salton Sea, with tilapia being the main fish that can survive. Amazingly we found that many birds are here and that it is a major resting stop on the Pacific Flyway. We only made it to the North Shore before the sun started to set behind the mountains so we would like to return one day to explore more of this fascinating place.

 

So many dead tilapia along the shores

Salton Sea from Bombay Beach

The remains of a resort

More remnants

So many abandoned homes

The view inside the home in the above pic

I'm not sure if I would like to 'Live This Life'

 

This was taken at the North Shore beside the newer

Yacht Club building

North Shore, Salton Sea

The grounds of North Shore at sunset

This is the remains of the old pier at North Shore

 

I do have a couple more blog postings to get caught up on but it's hard to do when you have renos to do, gin rummy to play, exploring...you get the picture.

 

Talk soon!