The Salton Sea

When we were stopped in Indio the plan was to go and visit the Salton Sea, California's largest lake it's 35 miles long and 15 miles wide, the surface of the lake is at 227 feet below sea level. In ancient times part of the gulf of California, it became closed off and 2000 years ago it was a giant lake that over time it dried up.

Site of one of the Yacht Clubs that were on the Salton Sea

During the late 1800s, ther was a big planned in a region south of the lake called the Imperial valley. A canal was built to divert water from the Colorado river to irigate the 100,000 acres of fields in the valley.

In 1906 after a very wet winter the swells of the Colorado river broke though the canals and gates and poured in out of control for more then 18 months into the then Salton Sink creating the actual Salton Sea.

Great Egret

By the 1950s the Salton Sea had become a popular resort with 2 yacht clubs, beaches and a championship golf course, by the 1960s the increasing salinity had put an end to the flow of visitors and stuctures, motels, garages, restaurants etc.. became abbandoned and derelics ruins. From a photographic point of view one of the reason I wanted to visit the area, the other being that the Salton Sea is a stop for millions of migrating birds that pass trough the region each years.

Pelicans Feeding

Bombay Beach is a small derelic town on the shores of the Salton Sea, it's a favorite of many photographers for it's post-apocaliptic look, Needless to say that it was on my list but not on my wife's, so I went alone. It was a bit disapointing as some of the famous sights such as the airstream trailer in the sunken trailer park are no more, but still interesting.

Welcome to Bombay Beach

What's left of the sunken trailer park