7 Jan 18
BLM Land Joshua Tree
Today’s adventure was traveling south from JT to California’s largest lake that you don’t want to swim in. The Salton Sea is 35 miles long by 15 miles wide and 235 feet below sea level and use to be (thousand of years ago) connected to the salt water of the gulf of California.
So the lake bed contains more salt content than the ocean, and unlike most lakes there is no natural outlet flowing to the ocean. What ever water enters into the lake by runoff ( only 3 inch annual rainfall) the water stays and either evaporates or percolates in the ground. Over the years agricultural runoff helped to pollute this lake, although according to the Park Ranger, it is safe to swim in and eat the fish (Tilapia) caught in it now.
The lake shore is covered in tiny barnacles. The barnacles have no natural predator and multiply by the billions. The barnacles arrived at the lake by float planes that landed in the lake in the 1940s when there use to be a Navy base nearby. So now instead of sand or dirt for a beach there are billions of barnacles that look like sea shells.
The Naval Auxiliary Air Station, Salton Sea, was initially commissioned in 1942. It functioned as an operational and training base for seaplanes. Additional activities at the base have included experimental testing of solidfuel plane-launched rockets, jet-assist take-off testing, aeroballistic testing of inert atomic weapon test units at land and marine target areas, training bombing at marine targets, testing of the effects of long-term storage on atomic weapons, testing of the parachute landing systems of the Project Mercury space capsules, parachute training and testing, and military training exercises. The base was abandoned in 1978.
The park as whole was surprising clean and well kept. There is full hook-up camping here ($30). The beach had alot of crusted salt deposits and alot of dead fish, although the only “smell” in the air was that of salt. Which was a little much for me.
There’s a town down the road called Bombay Beach, located on the east shore of the Salton Sea, and like many communities along its shores, has had to contend with fluctuating water levels. A berm now protects the west end of the town, but a portion of the town beyond the berm is either submerged or is half-buried in mud. The ruins of Bombay Beach attract many photographers and visitors.
In the 1950s and ’60s, Bombay Beach was a thriving resort. Guests swam, water-skied, and golfed during the day, then headed to the yacht club to party into the night.
With the lake being so polluted from agricultural runoff and the salinity on the rise, the town went belly up. Seems like more than half of the residences are just shattered and falling apart as a testament in time stood still. There are still some people living inhere but you can tell they are very modest means and very modest shacks or trailers.
We stopped for lunch along the eastern shore of the Salton Sea at the “gateway” to Slab City in town named Nilland at Buckshot’s Diner and Café. It’s the only game in town so there was no other choice and we’ve had worse but we fared better. The next stop was going to see the infamous slab city and salvation mountain.
As we arrived to Salvation Mountain, which is man made Shrine we could tell we were not in our reality anymore, we entered another space and time in the Twilight Zone.
The colorful art mountain is made from adobe, straw, and thousands of gallons of paint. Salvation Mountain was created by a “Slabber” Leonard Knight (1931–2014). It has numerous murals and areas painted with Christian sayings and Bible verses. Leonard live in his truck for over 20 years while “working” on this pile.
The current Salvation Mountain is actually this second. Leonard began the first Salvation Mountain in 1984, though it was incredibly unstable. The Mountain fell into a heap of rubble, then he began building it all over again…
Slab City—–
Here is a place in time where everything you knew about RVing and camping is totally upside down. A place of hippies, beat nicks, homeless, wire cutters, and those that have escaped the real world have squatted. Wow…
Slab City, or The Slabs, is a free campsite and alternative living community located near an active bombing range in the desert city of Niland, California. Previously an old WWII base, Marine Barracks Camp Dunlap, the campsite earns its name for the concrete slabs that remained long after the military base had been bulldozed and abandoned.
Many RVrs have heard about slab city. Squatters , transients , and some snowbirds would go here to live. There are no rules , there is no infrastructure , there are few boundaries and to some it is the ultimate land of freedom. There is no government, no rent, just sunshine and junk everywhere you look.
As we drove around staring at all these “homesteads” in disbelief at just how incredibly trashy and nasty it is to live here. It is fine to live off grid, but come on folks this place was something out of a bad movie. We only took a few pictures as it just wasn’t worth it….
As we left the Slabs driving to our “home” in the desert, we felt like we needed to take a long hot shower and wash our eyes….. and glad we left that alternate dimension of life there…… wow.