Topic: Salton Sea Road Trip 03/28/09

[FrankB]

On Saturday a group of us from the San Diego dSLR photo club took a road trip out to the Salton Sea, with stops in Anza Borrego on the way out and back.  After a quick stop in Santa Ysabel to pick up some apple pies to go with lunch, we stopped in Anza Borrego to check out the flowers. There are still some wildflowers out, although not as many as a few weeks ago, but the cholla are starting to bloom nicely.

Salton Sea Road Trip 03/28/09

Salton Sea Road Trip 03/28/09

Our little caravan lined up in the desert. I was leading the way, so that makes this whole thing Xterra related (well, sort of ), in case you're wondering why this is here.

Salton Sea Road Trip 03/28/09

On to the Salton Sea - first stop is "downtown" Niland. Judging by this abandoned building, there must have been something going on here years ago, or at least big expectations.

Salton Sea Road Trip 03/28/09

Niland is the gateway to Slab City and Salvation Mountain. As always, Leonard, the creator of Salvation Mountain, was happy to give us a tour. It was pretty crowded actually, apparently there's been a lot of publicity lately.

Salton Sea Road Trip 03/28/09

Salton Sea Road Trip 03/28/09

Salton Sea Road Trip 03/28/09

Salton Sea Road Trip 03/28/09

Next stop  - Slab City (like the sign says: the last free place) and the painted water tanks behind it.

Salton Sea Road Trip 03/28/09

Salton Sea Road Trip 03/28/09

Salton Sea Road Trip 03/28/09

Salton Sea Road Trip 03/28/09

[FrankB]

There was a guy working on Tank of Dinosaurs and Death (or whatever it is called). When he saw a bunch of people with cameras he quickly ducked into his little camper and hid out until we left.

Salton Sea Road Trip 03/28/09

Salton Sea Road Trip 03/28/09

There is a lot of weird stuff going on at the Salton Sea. Some of it seems quite unnatural.

Salton Sea Road Trip 03/28/09

Bombay Beach is looking more desolate than ever.

Salton Sea Road Trip 03/28/09

Salton Sea Road Trip 03/28/09

From Bombay Beach it was on to the North Shore Yacht Club, for our final stop along the shore. No dead fish in the water this time.

Salton Sea Road Trip 03/28/09

Salton Sea Road Trip 03/28/09

Salton Sea Road Trip 03/28/09

Salton Sea Road Trip 03/28/09

We stopped on Borrego Springs Road to check out the saber tooth cat sculptures. Sometimes photographers get so wrapped in what they are doing that they are oblivious to impending danger.

Salton Sea Road Trip 03/28/09

A few more wildflowers.

Salton Sea Road Trip 03/28/09

Salton Sea Road Trip 03/28/09

Salton Sea Road Trip 03/28/09

Salton Sea Road Trip 03/28/09

And, just to keep it Xterra related, a shot of the truck as the sun sets in the background in Anza Borrego.

Salton Sea Road Trip 03/28/09

[XterracerX]

Beautiful pics Frank!

[Oz]

Really GREAT picts Frank!

[Paul]

The Salton Sea is a good reminder that drugs are bad Mmmkay?

Beautiful pictures.

[Rexterra]

Thanks for sharing!

[Goldfish]

Great pictures Frank. We missed you at the Mojave Rd.

[GUANO]

The first time I have ever gotten stuck was in the salton sea.  on the way back from glamis, thought we'd check out the lake....  smelled like a leach field, stunk, thousands of dead fish...  the ground was parched dry, i walked on the ground in front of the x to make sure it was nice a sturdy, got into the x and turned around to head out of there and immediately sunk into mud that was hidden 4 inches under the parched earth, street tires and all, I did find out i have some sort of locker in the rear, but didn't help at all... I found someone with a wench to try to pull me out... he couldn't do it on sturdy ground with his big dodge... we ended up attaching to a 6 ton rock and hand-winched for about 20 mins, shoveled... made it out....  I know for sure I would have made it out with some lift and tires...

I pretty much fell in the lake but the shore was over 100 yards away... had to get to a gas station and try to clean the breaks, they were full of leach field poo mixed with sun-dried barnacle shells.... gross... 

[SuperSlideStyle]

Nice pics but I think the place looks like a dump.  I was actually thinking of going by to check it out but now, nevermind.

[Soylent Yellow]

Nice pics but I think the place looks like a dump.  I was actually thinking of going by to check it out but now, nevermind.

You should go check it out.  The drive around the Salton Sea can be very interesting.  True, it is a big, sticky, mud puddle, but it's our big, stinky, mud puddle. 

[FrankB]

There really is a lot of history out there, some really interesting stuff.  I remember going camping at Salton Sea when I was in grade school, we even swam in the Sea. Lots of people planned to make a lot of money turning the place into a beach paradise of sorts. Whole communities were laid out, with streets, curbs, gutters, and utilities . . . and not a house was built. The infrastructure is still there. Bombay Beach was at one time very popular with the Hollywood crowd I think.

The stuff that is out there now is interesting too, you just have to be sensitive to the folks that choose to live out there, and respect their privacy in certain places.

Oh, if you run into my cousin Joey say hello, but yell pretty loud, he's quite hard of hearing even though he's not all that old.  I'm told he hangs out at the Ski Inn at Bombay Beach.

[Ghost65]

The first time I have ever gotten stuck was in the salton sea.  on the way back from glamis, thought we'd check out the lake....  smelled like a leach field, stunk, thousands of dead fish...  the ground was parched dry, i walked on the ground in front of the x to make sure it was nice a sturdy, got into the x and turned around to head out of there and immediately sunk into mud that was hidden 4 inches under the parched earth, street tires and all, I did find out i have some sort of locker in the rear, but didn't help at all... I found someone with a wench to try to pull me out... he couldn't do it on sturdy ground with his big dodge... we ended up attaching to a 6 ton rock and hand-winched for about 20 mins, shoveled... made it out....  I know for sure I would have made it out with some lift and tires...

I pretty much fell in the lake but the shore was over 100 yards away... had to get to a gas station and try to clean the breaks, they were full of leach field poo mixed with sun-dried barnacle shells.... gross...  

Been there...

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[GUANO]

that's the stuff right there, I think the crap I sunk in had a little larger concentration of shells, it was nasty.  Not what I wanted my breaks covered in.

On a side note I saw the area featured on a Huell Howser show, showing the crazy metal sculptures. 

[Ghost65]

that's the stuff right there, I think the crap I sunk in had a little larger concentration of shells, it was nasty.  Not what I wanted my breaks covered in.

On a side note I saw the area featured on a Huell Howser show, showing the crazy metal sculptures. 

Yep, green and with a pretty intolerable odor...coated my riding boots up to the ankles.

I saw the Huell Howser segment, pretty interesting.  Also, Anthony Bourdain visited a lounge/bar on the shore and sampled their fried fare for a segment of his "No Reservations" foodie show on Bravo.  Salton Sea/City is kind of a throw back to the fifties, and an era of boom and bust for an area that was an irrigation mistake.  My folks used to go there and water ski during the early sixties, and said it was quite the spot.  Used to get a fine coating of salt on your body from the spray off of the tow boat they said.  I camped there in the early seventies, and it was already in decline, and now when I go to the desert it is a drive by visit.  There is a casino there too now, with quite the cross section of humanity frequenting the one armed bandits.

Drive through Westmorland sometime on the east side of the sea for a real time warp.

[FrankB]

The Huell Howser segment was actually about the sculptures in Borrego Springs, they're not at the Salton Sea. You can go see the sculptures without any worries about about running over dead fish in the mud.

The Anthony Bourdain episode was amusing too.  He went to the Ski Inn in Bombay Beach.  I'm not sure I would eat there.  Bourdain also stopped at the Shields date farm in Indio on that trip.