I promised a follow-up post on my recent Salton Sea visit last week. Here's the backstory for those of you who are not familiar with the area. The Salton Sea is the largest lake in the state of California, although it is an "accidental" lake. It resulted from massive overflow from irrigation canals connecting to the Colorado River. The water flowed to an area that has no drainage. In the 60's and 70's, the Salton Sea became a very popular vacation destination. It had great boating, fishing, water skiing, and was slated to be the "next big thing" from a real estate development point of view. Developers saw big opportunity and started developing areas like Salton City. Roads were built, utilities were brought in, lots were sold, and homes and marinas were constructed.
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But somewhere along the way, the health of the lake suffered. Salinity rose to the point where there were large fish die-offs, and no one could (or can) figure out how to reverse things.
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This worried investors, created odors and attracted flies, and basically put the brakes on real estate development in the area. Home buyers were scared off, and as real estate values plummeted, people defaulted on loans and walked away for their vacation paradise investment.
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So what has become of the Salton Sea, you ask?? The salinity is so high that very few fish species can survive (it's more saline than the ocean). The water has receded due to evaporation exceeding inflow, and continues to recede more each year. The water is much too polluted for swimming or even boating. The sand beaches have been replaced with dead fish, fish bones, and barnacle shells.
Even our little chihuahua dog couldn't walk down to the water's edge... the fish bones and barnacle shells were too sharp to walk on.
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A blog I was reading about the Salton Sea (http://www.saltonseawalk.com) describes Bombay Beach on the Salton Sea as "A worst case scenario - perhaps the most heinous civic failure in the annals of western human civilization." Perhaps an overstatement, perhaps not, but you can argue that there are many Bombay Beach-like locations all around the Salton Sea.
So why visit? It's such a strange and unusual place that that becomes a draw in itself. It's popular with birders and also with photographers. The abandoned trailers, eccentric people, alien landscape... well, you get the picture.
Bottom line? Absolutely worth a visit, and make sure you take your camera gear!
