Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Salton Sea in California…

Salton Sea CA 031imageOne of the quirky places that has always been on my “must go see!” list was the Salton Sea. I am not sure why but everything I ever read about it just somehow attracted me to it. Funny, while we were in San Diego all we heard about was that Southern California awoke one morning to a foul odor that wouldn’t go away. Air quality investigators finally concluded that the rotten-egg aroma that stretched across Southern California had come from the Salton Sea. So why go see it? Because that made it even more quirky… I just had to go!

Salton Sea CA 033We drove a whopping 40 miles southeast and are staying at the Oasis Palms RV Resort, a fairly nice Passport America park on the northwestern edge of the the Salton Sea. The park has a pool and a hot tub along with the fact that we are in an old orchard and allowed to pick anything inside the park. The bounty included lots of lemons, a grapefruit and several pounds of fresh dates and all for only $18.50 per night. Hard to beat that!

Salton Sea CA 036However, the main reason to be here was for us to go to the Salton Sea. The Sea at its deepest points is only about 50 feet but it is a 360-square-mile body of highly saline water. Our plan was to circumnavigate the lake and to do so required a 115 mile drive… so be it! The lake is said to be shrinking and slowly receding into the desert as more water is evaporating from the sea than what is now flowing into it from agricultural runoff. This “sea” was actually created in 1905 when the Colorado River jumped its banks during a particularly rainy season and filled an ancient salt sink some 35 miles long, 15 miles wide and 227 feet below sea level.

The landscape is your typical southwestern scrub desert with rugged dry mountains around the northern half of the lake. The southern half is surrounded by agricultural lands where water from the aqueducts has created an artificially Salton Sea CA 001green oasis. Most notable about the Salton Sea are it’s residents. Many towns sprung up around the lake in the hope that this might be the next Palm Springs or even better. However, what was apparently unaccounted for was the explosion in fishes such as tilapia in the lake that now result in massive die offs when there are algae blooms (undoubted due to agricultural fertilizer runoff). The algae blooms, deplete the lake of oxygen in places, many fish die and this pattern now continues annually.

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The result is a nasty and putrid fishy smell that permeates the water. Just get a bit down wind or near its edge and you will be quickly reminded of the recent die off. Fish carcasses line the waters edge and instead of sand there are the older boney fragmented remains of past die offs. Very eerie indeed…

Salton Sea CA 003Yet towns such as Desert Shores, Salton Sea Beach, Salton, Ferrum, Durmid and Bertram began in the 1950's  because it was believed that this would become a big resort area and that many people would be moving to this beautiful area. Years later after many fish die offs it became evident it was not going to happen.  Therefore what remains is many of these towns are in shambles with numerous dilapidated buildings. There are hundreds of people hanging on to life in these towns but I suspect that many of them are laborers in the agricultural fields nearby. However, there is one town I was seeking out in particular just outside of Niland, California, known as Slab City and I will cover it is its own worthy blog…

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Salton Sea CA 029Salton lake is a birder’s paradise especially during migration season which we are now in. As a result there were large flocks of birds all over the lake. Most notable were the large concentrations of White Pelicans and Black Necked Stilts. It was a blast walking along the edges of the Salton Sea and checking out the birds. We really enjoyed the beauty of the landscape in this area but can't say we could ever really enjoy the smell…

13 comments:

  1. I LOVE the black-legged stilts. They migrated through Hawaii around January or February and there was one Volkswalk every year during their migration which took us through a park where we could see them.

    Gorgeous, graceful birds.

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    1. they are a real treat to watch as the stand so tall walking along the sand...

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  2. We have been to the Salton Sea a few times and the smell gets worse every year. We even camped a few nights on the shores and was quite nice at the time with no wind.
    Slab City sure is an interesting community to say the least, certainly and experience.
    While in the area Borego Springs and interesting day is to see how many of the over 130 Metal sculptures you can locate in the area Galleto Meadows.

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    1. yes we missed the sculptures - will have to return some day to catch them...

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  3. I remember walking on those tiny shells. We sank about down 4-6 inches.
    Hope you didn't miss Dos Palmas Preserve. Also, General Patton Memorial Museum is wonderful.

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    1. we will return to this area but we have to be in Phoenix on Nov 1 so we are moving faster than we like...

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  4. We liked the time we spent on the shore of the Salton Sea. There were lots of birds and the sights were beautiful. Didn't like all the dead fish either.

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  5. We spent 3 weeks at that park, and became good friends with Ann & Mike, the host/managers at the park. Isnt all the fruit great? Its sad the condition of the Salton Sea, but we did enjoy visiting Salavation Mountain and Slab City, while there.

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    1. yes we met them and they are indeed special folks, the fruit is fabulous...

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  6. White pelicans are a special mascot for the Klamath Basin, and I am always sad to see them go (probably to Mexico via the Salton Sea) and always happy to see them return in the spring. They are really great birds, very gregarious. Mo and I thought about taking our kayaks to the Salton Sea after reading some glowing reviews, but all we saw when we were there were the fishy banks that you showed in your photos. maybe not!

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    1. you should do it, as the Salton Sea is still very neat, I know if we had kayaks we would have cut a wave on the sea....

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  7. We drove by part of this area on the way to a rally last year. Thanks for sharing some of the history. It certainly is a strange place.

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