On The Road With Tom & Suzie: Exploring the Salton Sea, 2021

We wrote this when it was almost Thanksgiving 2021 and we were on a 3 day road trip in our “new to us” motorhome. We were doing a shakedown cruise to detect and then repair any problems with the motorhome before we start our trip home to Florida in the Spring.

We left the RV park we were staying at in Hemet, California and drove past Palm Springs to the Salton Sea where we were staying at the Fountain of Youth Spa and RV Park.

This is a remote area way out in the desert. The RV park is built on top of natural hot springs and those hot springs feed the several swimming pools and hot tubs at the park. The swimming pools are a very comfortable temperature and the various hot tubs are varying temperatures from pretty warm to the pool called the “Lobster Pot”, which is very hot. There are also men's and women’s steam rooms that are heated naturally from the hot springs. This is an internet picture of the lobster pot with the swimming pool in the background.

We spent the first day of our road trip driving to Fountain of Youth and getting set up in our campsite. Then we visited all of the hot tubs and had a very relaxing afternoon.

The next day, we drove south about 1/2 hour to an old, abandoned World War II Marine Corps base. When the Marines left, they tore down all of the buildings and left just the concrete foundation slabs. They also left 2 concrete guard shacks on the entrance road and they are still there to greet you as you enter the abandoned base.

That whole area is now called Slab City and is occupied by an off the grid group of people who have set up a very primitive community.

On the road just before you get to Slab City, there is a large mound in the desert that was once owned by a man named Leonard Knight who envisioned and then built Salvation Mountain.

We had never heard of this before, but as we came around a bend in the road, there it was and we had to stop and investigate.

We walked all over the area and marveled at all of the work that went into creating this tribute in the middle of nowhere.

The amount of work that went into plastering the whole mountain in adobe and then painting it was amazing!

After visiting the Salvation Mountain, we continued a short distance down the road to Slab City.

As we drove all around the dirt roads of Slab City, we enjoyed looking at all of the unique campsite outposts that the Desert Rats had produced.

They were very organized in an unorganized situation. There were probably hundreds of individual campsites. Each one seemed to have staked out their territory and then filled it with all kinds of junk and treasure.

The interesting thing about the whole thing was that they all seemed to respect each other's space. Each site might have been occupying an acre of ground but the neighbors respected that and piled all of their stuff quite a ways away so that they weren't crowding each other.

There were quite a few people wandering around their own plots and they were quite colorful.

We were reluctant to get out of our car and walk among them or to photograph them because they really seemed to want to be "off the grid", so here are a few pictures from the internet to give you a flavor of Slab City.

Almost every spread had a large amount of furniture scattered around the yard. We figure that since it is probably 180º in the shade there in the summer time that they spend a lot of time outside.

We also couldn't find any source for fresh water anywhere except in the nearby irrigation canal and we suspect that they all must have a system of penetrating the fence that guards the canal so that they can syphon water into portable tanks that they then transport back to their homestead. We also didn't see any way for them to dispose of their sewage so we hope that didn't go into the canal!

We did see a few solar panels at a few spots but it must be really dark at night or very noisy with generators.

These don't look like generator people so we are going with very dark.

It could be that they use a lot of candles but we know how that can end.

A Slab City free spirit.

I guess every year they have a Prom and these people were all dressed up to go to the Prom!

This is the Prom Queen.

When we left Slab City, we drove back to the shoreline of Salton Sea where we found the small almost abandoned town of Bombay Beach.

Bombay Beach used to be a resort town on the edge of the shoreline of Salton Sea but the waterline has receded due to evaporation and now the town is about 1/4 mile from the water's edge. It is also the lowest elevation community in the United States at 223 feet below sea level. It has a population now of about 400 people.

The Salton Sea is really a large lake that was formed accidentally in 1905 when an irrigation canal that had been dug in 1900 to provide water to the Imperial Valley agricultural area failed and spilled its water into the lowest area around. The area where the water ended up was about 225 feet below sea level and became known as the Salton Sea.

After about 2 years of the canal sending all of its water into the Salton Sea, they finally repaired it and that ended the inflow of water into the Salton Sea.

Now, the Salton Sea gets its water from runoff from the nearby farmers' fields or from runoff from the few rains that fall here in the desert.

As the population of California continues to grow, water is becoming a very precious commodity and so it is becoming more and more expensive for the farmers in the area to irrigate their crops. For that reason, instead of flooding their fields every year like they did in the past, they have developed very effective drip and spray irrigation systems that use only the exact amount of water that the crops need to thrive.

That, plus the extended drought that California has been experiencing has prevented fresh water inflow into the Salton Sea and has resulted in the steady decline in the surface area of the sea and the retreat of the shoreline.

As the shoreline receded and the salinity of the Salton Sea increased, Bombay Beach was almost abandoned and became a ghost town.

Then, around 2018, people began to drift back to Bombay Beach and a slight renaissance is beginning. It seems that intermingled between the abandoned and somewhat bombed out old structures of the town, people are rehabilitating some of the abandoned buildings and the town is becoming somewhat of an eccentric artist colony.

We drove up and down all of the streets, about 20 square residential blocks, and saw quite a few interesting sights.

This abandoned home had a sign proclaiming "Bombay Beach TV's" and we think they were right.

We don't know what this is.

Since you can't get your boat to the water any more, this might be the only alternative.

This must be just in case the water level rises.

We felt that this was the winner of all the art attempts in town. We can't figure out how they were able to bend the fuselage so smoothly.

This was our pick for second place. It must have taken a huge amount of work.

After Bombay Beach, we headed back to Fountain of Youth RV Park but before we arrived, we stopped off at their golf course for a photo op.

They have what they call "Desert Golf", which is like golf but without grass. You tee off on a piece of carpet and from then on, you are in the dirt and rocks.

The good news is that they supply the clubs, which are just about beaten to death. Suzie warming up.