The "Salt Flats" at Amboy Road

 I spent a hot afternoon and most of the evening in Amboy, CA recently. It's a fascinating area and I came home with my camera's memory card full of photos. I'll be sharing those photos over the next few posts.

Before leaving my desert house, I spotted this desert iguana. He was huge! About 12' nose to tail tip. Usually they are skittish, but this one stayed in this spot for about 10 minutes before finally moving. He looks fat and happy!

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After about 50 minites of driving through the wide open desert from 29 Palms, you will come to the National Chloride Company. It's very remote: There is really nothing else out here, until you get to the "town" of Amboy. I've done no research on this company, or how chloride is made, but it's on my list of things to do.

 

The National Chloride Company operates on a huge dry lake, and the surrounding area looks like a lunar landscape. The soil (if that's what you can call it) looks odd. Not sandy, there's no vegetation, and with little pock holes and crusty irregularities that make for difficult walking. In some areas, it's white in color and looks like salt flats.

There are channels dug out throughout the area (although the channels themselves are mostly not visible from the road), and dirt from the channels form mounds you can see all over the dry lake. Very odd looking, like little mini pyramids. If you take the time to hike out to these mounds, and go over or around them to the opposite side, you will find something very surprising. 

 

 

 

The channels are full of water! Also surprising is the water seems to be flowing, and is a beautiful aqua color. On a hot day (and all summer days out here are scorching) you might think it's a desert mirage! You might be tempted to jump in!

I even discovered my own little island, although I couldn't find a way to get to it without a swim. And speaking of that, I wonder what kind of chemicals are in this water? Is it the chemicals that give the water a beautiful aqua color? And I wonder if the water is toxic? There's almost nothing growing next to the water, and I didn't see a single critter, not even a bird, near the water. Even if the water was safe, you would likely find the soil under the water to be soft and squishy. You would likely sink deep into the muck. You could slide down the steep bank for your swim, but you might find it's impossible to get back out!
 

Photo credit: Photographersnature (Wikipedia site)

I wish I could take credit for this photo. It occurred to me that this would be a wonderful location for sunset photography, and it even crossed my mind that a photo of the salt channels under the Milky Way could potentially be epic! But I also figured the good folks at the National Chloride Company probably wouldn't want me out here at night, and if I would trip and fall into a channel in the dead of night, it might be many days before my body was found!

 

This small minimalist structure is on the other side of the road from the National Chloride Company. It's been here a long time, and still looks to be in pretty good shape (at least from the outside). 

It appears the electrical wiring is long gone.

 

 

Elevated water storage tank?

 

Thanks for stopping by!! We've barely scratched the surface of what can be seen in and around Amboy, so stay tuned for future posts.

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