The Salton Sea is a mysterious place, hanging on the edge of perception of most southern Californians. It’s a lake that wasn’t a lake and is on its way to not being a lake but may instead become toxic dust blowing around the Sonoran desert. Or at least a part of “the desert” that is surprisingly verdant (thank-you Colorado river) in the agricultural Imperial Valley between San Diego and Arizona. But it still is a stopover for migrating birds!
It’s also a place of some curious communities of misfits and retirees, almost (but not entirely) off the grid.
Getting to Salton Sea via Borrego Springs
Our path to the Salton Sea went through Borrego Springs and a visit with our friends Nancy and Peter McRae. Borrego is another half perceived place– on the way to being the next Palm Springs but always 30 years from getting there. In the meantime, it is a neat little desert town, with the appropriate weather – quiet and starlit nights, roasty during the summer – and some surprisingly engrossing local art.
Bombay Beach
Bombay Beach (elevation -223 feet) boomed in the 60s as a lakeside resort, but as the Salton Sea evaporated, salinity increased, and the fish died off (with that distinctive bouquet), it shrunk to an eclectic collection of semi-abandoned huts, bungalows, and trailers. Some old timers remain, and some artists have moved in. Lots of striking and sometimes bizarre installations now.
The Ski Inn
The one eating establishment in town – quite good in the classic burgers and fries way! And fun.
Slab City
Built on the concrete slabs left over from a Marine Corps training camp, Slab City one ups Bombay Beach. Very off-the-grid, eclectic, counterculture, and alternative lifestyle. Some religion going on in Salvation Mountain and the “suburb” of East Jesus, and with more experimental art installations than you can shake a stick at. Population 4000 in the winter…and 150 in the summer. Hot. But if I was living off social security alone, I’d at least give it a second look.
More Background
Wikipedia has articles on the Salton Sea, Borrego Springs, Bombay Beach, and Slab City.
For more background on the Salton Sea, see Life of the Salton Sea, the early 20th century floods that formed it, and subsequent inter-state water management.
The geology of the area owes a lot to the southern end of the San Andreas fault.
The delta of the Colorado River protects the Imperial Valley from being flooded by the Gulf of California, so flooding is mostly from shifts in the now thoroughly dammed and controlled Colorado River. But storms can bring flooding. Indeed, there is likely to be more of that as warming ocean waters make tropical cyclones more likely on the west coast.
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