The Salton Sea

On a recent trip to a desert resort with my girlfriend, we decided to take advantage of the opportunity to visit the Salton Sea and take some photos of the place. I had always heard of the place and seen photos of dead birds and fish among abandoned hotels and boats. The Salton Sea seemed like an intersecting place to explore.

We set out in the morning from La Casa del Zorro Resort & Spa and stopped for breakfast burritos at Carleys in Borrego Springs. As we drove up to the giant body of water in the middle of the desert I could already begin to smell the odor coming from that place. Why would anyone live near there is beyond me, but there they are. Living in a giant land that is wasting away. I did not enjoy visiting the Salton Sea. It stank, and the muddy shore made it almost impossible to get to the water. I got some interesting shots of the landscape and the decay that was all around. I also found this interesting information on Wikipedia that makes me wonder if that entire place is radioactive.

                     In October 1942 the Salton Sea Test Base, just to the south-east of Salton City, originally 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.