The Salton Sea Revealed

We needed to get away, some place simple and warm - I started driving my Tacoma away from the ocean towards California’s Imperial Valley. I was looking for a certain place but it would have to wait till tomorrow, the sun was going down and my baby's mama was getting hungry. We'd ended up near the east shore of the Salton Sea, the 1st stop on our adventure was Bombay Beach for some sunset pics.

Bombay Beach

Here we first saw up close why, when Hollywood's looking to exemplify the world 50 or 100 years after humanity, they shoot here. The building remains were broken down and encrusted with salt, the entire place had an air of "after" - something I describe when it doesn't seem like anything is happening anymore, the world had just moved on. We were enjoying a spectacular sunset in a place that seemed to once be, but what? We continued up the road still searching for a place we could park the truck for an evening under the stars.

The Salton Sea, two times larger than Lake Tahoe, is one of the world's largest inland seas and lowest spots on earth at -227 below sea level. It was re-created in 1905 when high spring flooding on the Colorado River crashed the canal gates leading into the developing Imperial Valley.  For the next 18 months the entire volume of the Colorado River rushed downward into the "Salton Trough".  By the time engineers were finally able to stop the breaching water in 1907, the Salton Sea had been born at 45 miles long and 20 miles wide equaling about 130 miles of shoreline. 

We entered the Salton Sea State Recreation Area, which covered a good chunk of the eastern shore. Finding Salt Creek we parked the truck on a flat spot for our nights slumber. As my wife took some final twilight shots she made a discovery. 

"Uh, honey? Can you come over here please... quickly?" 

She had found a blanket of dead fish covering the shoreline as far as we could see in the waning light...

What the hell was going on around here? Some research revealed an article claiming 7.6 million fish had died in August, washing up on shore for days after.

The accepted scientific explanation of this summer fish die-off involves several oxygen-depleting factors starting with the combination of sun and salt: Salt water carries less oxygen than fresh water, and hot water carries less oxygen than cool water.

Credit 

Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

Agricultural run-off from the Imperial, Coachella, and Mexicali Valleys supplies 90 percent of the inflow to the Sea. When summer winds churn up rich nutrients like phosphates and nitrates, plants and algae bloom, sometimes turning an entire end of the lake green within a day. 

When the sea's increasingly briny water heats up in summer temperatures that can reach 125 degrees, and the decaying algae also consumes more of the water's oxygen - the tilapia begin to suffocate, and die by the millions.

1960's North Shore Yacht Club

Apparently after the 1905 "mistake" fisherman noticed the rapidly increasing salinity of the new sea, imported marine fish from the Pacific Ocean and turned the Salton Sea into one of the best sport fishing locations in the United States. So by the 1950’s this "mistake" had turned itself into a thriving success, its salinity and below sea level altitude made it ideal for water sports. The area also became a world famous bird watching location, due to its critical location on the Pacific Migratory Flyway.  Fifty years after its creation, the Salton Sea was a premier working class vacationers’ destination, attracting more visitors per year than Yosemite National Park.

We were appalled and amazed, it was gross and weird and we weren't afraid. I mean, they were long dead, dried up & we couldn't actually see anything in the dark. The off-shore breeze felt nice as we laid down for the night.

Slab City Library

The next morning that breeze had stopped and we realized why we had so few neighbors, some of these fish were still decomposing! The smell was our first clue, so we packed camp and got back on the road motivated to explore this alien landscape to the fullest, we were searching for Salvation Mountain. I had read about this place in Jon Krakauers biography of Chris McCandless "Into the Wild", and after some research found out it really exists.

Salvation Mountain

Inside Salvation Mountain

Slab City (near Niland, CA, at the eastern edge of the Salton Sea) – So named because of the cracked concrete slabs still remaining from a World War II military base, this remains one of the last “free spaces” in America. Every winter, thousands of “snow birds” migrate to this desert site for un-patrolled, fee-free camping. Every parched, kiln-hot summer, they depart – except for a hard-core group of about 150 full-timers, including folk artist Leonard Knight, whose nutty Salvation Mountain clay-and-plaster art project has been going strong for years.
We explored the acrylic ongoing masterpiece and drove around this desert village, it was fascinating, I had never seen organized homesteading and was actually feeling a little proud to be an American knowing that there still are places a man can just claim as his own.

Homestead

We drove north back along the sea having decided to sleep near a vista spot within Anza-Borrego beyond the western shore that evening. Our intent was to explore the Salton shoreline around the northern edge till our road broke west into the higher desert.

The city of Salton existed where the sea now resides, over 100 years ago it was evacuated, flooded and replaced by Salton City on the western shoreline. We pulled in and began to see street after developed street, empty lots for miles all strung with power lines and underground cable, we kept driving towards the water amazed at this "almost" community.

We had to know the rest of the story, what happened that made everyone go away? Who planned to build so much and never did?

During that 1950's boom promoters had started building hotels, yacht clubs, and the infrastructure for a huge resort city. Celebrities such as Sonny Bono, Frank Sinatra and the Beach Boys started coming to the area and the abundant future of the Salton Sea economy seemed secure.

However, through a curious combination of circumstance and a series of unfortunate events, that plan never materialized.  First was a miscalculation by those promoters: while many lots were sold, few homes were built, as most buyers had purchased their lots for speculative investment or for future retirement.  Next, a series of hurricanes swept through the area: because the Salton Sea has no natural outlet  it is essentially a huge puddle, which rises and recedes dramatically depending on the amount of precipitation in a particular year.  These hurricanes brought tremendous floods whose onslaught submerged yacht clubs, the boat ramps and shoreline properties.

It had rained heavily this year, but I wasn't aware that was a factor we needed to be concerned with. We wanted to see where the desert met the sea, so we continued on aware of the deteriorating road conditions but unaware of its meaning. This area is unique, known to have a salty crust over muddy sand appearing to be dry ground, most locals know to beware.

We stuck the truck near a significant wash and spent the next four hours figuring out how to extract my 4x4 from the Salton Sludge. The locals had come up with an expensive solution: $400 later a modified Snow Cat Tractor pulled me 100 yards to dry ground.

Once free it was time to go home, my poor truck was covered in salty sludge and there was no car wash in sight - the mud was so thick on my axles I had to stay slow, the truck was shaking violently with all the extra weight underneath.

Once through the desert we were up in the mountain town of Julian for some BBQ & apple pie, comfort food in a familiar village. Home wasn't far, and I'll make sure to have better tires, a 4x4 buddy and perhaps a winch the next time I'm that close to the Salton Sea.