Borrego Modern Weekend IV : Along the Salton Shores

So, over one full week after returning from the desert, I'm still finishing up posting photos of our various explorations, but this entry should be the final one. On Sunday afternoon, before making the long drive back to the coast, we set out further east to the dusty wilds of Imperial County and a drive along the shores of the Salton Sea. It's a drive I've made several times before, and the places we stopped were areas most of us had previously visited, but the ruined land and scrappy desert communities in one of the lowest geographical sections of the world always offers new sights and experiences (the agricultural town of Calipatria sits at -184 feet, officially the lowest city in the Western hemisphere). For those unfamiliar with the history of the Salton Sea, a quick refresher course can be found here. We spent most of our time along the eastern shores, where some of the most fascinating pockets of civilization are to be found.


Bombay Beach may be of the most photographed towns in all of California, thanks to the spectacular damage caused to shoreline development after one of the Salton Sea's many expansions and flooding. A sea wall now protects the rest of the tiny village from the saline waters, but the ghostly remains of a few blocks set under layers of muck are still accessible.

We found the sun-dried and dessicated remains of someone's picnic lunch drying on the shore (which itself is made up largely of the bones of the thousands of dead fish which are washed up each week).

With only 330-some inhabitants, Bombay Beach has few attractions, other then the whimsical home decorations and the novelty of seeing the majority of the population drive around in golf carts (the nearest gas station is over twenty miles away). However, one place to stop is the Ski Inn, a welcoming watering hole with a surprisingly decent tap and the constant possibility of interesting conversations. Sadly, the place had just gone on the market as the current owners have decided to retire, and its future is uncertain.

On Highway 111, heading south towards Niland and Salvation Mountain, we came across this eerie and abandoned homestead, which seemed to double as a welcoming area for extraterrestrial voyagers. We spent some time exploring the crumbling remains before getting thoroughly weirded out.

Our last stop was Salvation Mountain, a majestic and large-scale piece of environmental folk art just outside the town of Calipatria. The work of visionary Leonard Knight, the site has drawn the curious for several years before gaining mass recognition through a recent (and pretty lousy) film, Into the Wild. While the number of visitors has vastly increased thanks to the exposure, Mr. Knight remains the same humble, enthusiastic and gentle figure he previously was. I've now visited Salvation Mountain three times, so I left the camera in the car. But you can see a bit of what is on display by visiting this website. The Mountain has recently come under protection as a designated national treasure, and one can only hope that other forms of long-term preservation steps will come along. It's a wonderful piece of art in a unique section of the country.