Inspiration Mountain

We opted to travel down the east side of the Salton Sea and stay a couple of days at The Fountain Of Youth RV Park and Spa before our stay in the Palm Springs area.

Bathing in mineral rich hot waters has definitly lengthened our lives but not sure its made us any younger! We have also found a group of avid Pickleball players so had a very active morning.

But this afternoon was much more interesting. The Salton Sea is 236 feet below sea level and shrinking yearly. Its a shallow lake and very salty - not as salty as the Great Salt Lake but more salty than the oceans. Due to irrigation and re-channeling of the Colorado River, there is little new water coming into the basin and therefore the lake is shrinking. We had lunch in a really seedy dive bar called The Ski Inn. We were almost the only ones there for lunch and the bar maid was not able to give us much information about the area except the the town of Bombay Beach is home to an arts festival in March that triples the size of the town of 1200. We found a slit in the berm so we walked past what used to be a marina and out to the water. The last boat is famous for its graffiti.

Nearby is a well known area called Slab City and Inspiration Mountain. Slab City is comprised of squatters and RVers camping on slabs of concrete left by a US marine base that closed down and removed its buildings but not the slabs. It all looks vey trashy and dilapidated, dusty and dirty but with some creative pieces here and there. Its a wonder people can live there.

At the entrance to Slab City is Inspiration Mountain. Leonard Knight, over many years, has piled up trash coverd with sand and adobe into a mountain. He then painted it and shaped it to reflect his great love for God and Jesus. He continues to add to it by taking dead trees, old wood and haybales, and shaping them into a hut then covering it with adobe and paint.