the salton sea, pt. 1

My friend Ali and I took a road trip out to the Salton Sea via Palm Springs a few weekends ago. What an awesome trip! Palm Springs was much funkier than I thought, and the sea smelled as funky as I expected.

For those of you who don't know, the Salton Sea is credited as being one of the worst environmental disasters in our country. Click here for detailed history before the mid 1900's. I can tell you that during the 1950's or so, the Salton Sea was a hot tourist attraction. The Rat Pack used to frequent the yacht clubs, along with an estimated 4,000,000 other visitors each summer. People would bring their boats, kids, water skis, whatever, and revel in the sun and Salton Sea. I can't remember the exact details but during the height of this tourism boom, something changed in the surrounding agricultural community (I believe it was also affected by a river we share with Mexico) and the lake became insanely polluted. The pollution caused 99% of all life forms to die in the water (now only tilapia can survive, and not for very long. the shore is littered with dead fish, birds, and bones) and the tourism died with it. So now, all that's left is abandoned hotels, yacht clubs, neighborhoods, and grids of streets that lead to nowhere. It's eerie and creepy and insanely cool. There are still people living there, and I have no idea what they do with themselves. The people we met, one named Skeeter, were very sweet and happy. And that's what counts.

The photos in this post are a mix of Palm Springs and the Salton Sea. I'll let you figure out which is which. More pictures to follow... have a great weekend!