It was all at once desolate, haunting, depressing, mysterious and compelling. It was like we had accidentally stumbled upon the only place on earth where no other people exist. I wasn’t sure what to make of it, and kept trying to summon the emotions I might feel if it really were to happen.Īs I was doing this, sure enough, another human being arrives - like me, wide-eyed, flushed from the midday sun and confused. I’ve often wondered what life would be like if everyone around me were to suddenly disappear and I was the only one left behind. I walked along for awhile, mentally completely oblivious to the heat, but my body was fully aware of it and within minutes I was drenched in sweat. Coupled with the brutal August heat, the air was heavy with the stench. Thousands of decomposing fish bodies formed banks along the shoreline. I looked closer only to find out I was walking on crushed up fish bones, dried scales and barnacles. The sand, or what I thought was sand initially, cut my sandaled feet. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought there had been an apocalypse and I am witnessing the aftermath.
#GHOST TOWN SALTON SEA MOVIE#
The only information I know about the sea is what I gleaned from Wikipedia and the movie “Salton Sea.” I wanted to see first-hand what this place was all about. I decided to walk around the beach and check it out for myself. I looked out to the sea, which sits directly on the San Andreas fault, and see no one around. I pulled into the completely desolate parking lot in front of the inoperable visitor’s center.
I waited patiently thinking the attendant must be out somewhere, but realized that there was no one there. I pull up to the rec park to pay my entrance fee, only to find it was completely abandoned. So I decided to pass.Īfter the novelty of seeing the dinos in person wore off, and the unrelenting 107 degree temps beating down on me, I decided to hit the road and check out the Salton Sea. I hung out in the Brontosaurus’ tail looking around, but you have to pay to get inside the T-Rex which houses a museum. This time, I decided to stop and see them up close.
I had always seen those dinosaurs driving through the desert en route to Palm Springs and had always been curious about them. I did get to see the Cabazon Dinosaurs in Cabazon. I could tell the residents were growing suspicious of me and my rented Kia, and thought that it was time to ditch that town. I tried driving around the town, but after driving around Niland, CA for about an hour and many wrong turns down unpaved dirt roads, I decided to give up.
There is no actual address for this place. I also had to forgo seeing Salvation Mountain. I did take a wrong turn looking for the Center of the World in Winterhaven, CA and accidentally got on a freeway that led me to the border. I arrived in Yuma tonight only after nearly accidentally driving over the California/Mexico border – which I kept joking would happen, but actually didn’t think it would.