I was very pleased to finally pick up the ‘Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea‘ documentary this past weekend- which I must say is completely fantastic. If you know me, you know one of my favorite trips is my once a year trip to the sea where I think I’ve taken some of my best photos. If you’ve never been, or you’ve been and want to learn more/relive the amazingness you should really pick up this disc. You can get it on Amazon, or support the filmmaker and buy it direct.
Somehow the Salton Sea has put itself on my list of places to visit at least once every year, and every time I come by I think I take better pictures as well as appreciate it’s uniqueness more. I even broke down and bought the ‘Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea‘ documentary that I’ve always been wanting last week. It’s a seriously cool place, and if you’re anywhere near the SoCal area you really need to go check it out. Here are a few great areas to see when you go down there.
Bombay Beach
View Gallery
Bombay Beach is located on the east shore of the Salton Sea and, like many communities along its shores, has had to contend with rising and falling water levels. A berm now protects the west end of the town but a portion of the town beyond the berm is either sunken under water or is half-buried in mud.
It’s that time of year again, and Tanya and I didn’t want to let you down. For this year’s friendly postcard, we’re channeling The Salton Sea, and dressed the pets up and took them to our favorite abandoned shack with a big red X to get a few snaps. You might notice a new addition to the family from last year’s animals, Bunny the bunny and Scam the cat. We got a baby Cocker Spaniel mid-year this year who [like always] is harassing poor poor Scam. If you’ve missed last year’s killer card, click here.
Tanya and I are trying to get back on our old ‘at least once a month’ roadtrip schedule, and last week we went to the Salton Sea, which was a huge tourist destination but because of tons of pollution it’s now pretty much abandoned. Some really interesting photos came out of it, make sure to take a look at the rest of the series!
via wikipedia.org;
The creation of the Salton Sea of today started in 1905, when heavy rainfall and snowmelt caused the Colorado River to swell and breach an Imperial Valley dike. It took nearly two years to control the Colorado River’s flow into the formerly dry Salton Sink and stop the flooding. Once part of the vast inland sea which covered the area, the endorheic Salton Sink was the site of a major salt mining operation. As the basin filled, the town of Salton, a Southern Pacific Railroad siding and Torres-Martinez Indian land were submerged. The sudden influx of water and the lack of any drainage from the basin resulted in the formation of the Salton Sea.
The lack of an outlet means that the Salton Sea is increasingly becoming an unstable system: variations in agricultural runoff cause fluctuations in water level (and flooding of surrounding communities in the 1950s and 1960s), and the relatively high salinity of the agricultural runoff feeding the Sea has resulting in an ever increasing level of salinity. By the 1960s, it was becoming apparent that the salinity of the Salton Sea was continuing to rise, jeopardizing some of the species living in it. The Salton Sea currently has a salinity exceeding 40‰ (parts per thousand), making it saltier than ocean water, and many species of fish are no longer able to survive in the Salton. It is believed that once the salinity surpasses 44‰, only the tilapia will be able to survive. Fertilizer runoff combined with the increasing salinity and inflow of highly polluted water from the northward-flowing New River have resulted in large algal blooms and elevated bacteria levels. The New River is considered to be the single most polluted river in America.
The high level of bacteria resulting from fish die-offs are a major threat to the avian population. In 1992 and 1996 large scale die-offs of grebes and pelicans occurred, demonstrating the unstable nature of the ecosystem. The increasing salinity, algae, and bacteria levels have taken their toll on tourism, and many of the Salton Sea resorts are now closed and abandoned. Before recent water control measures were implemented, the Salton Sea’s surface tended to rise and fall severely, causing flooding problems in some of the surrounding communities.
This last Saturday Tanya and I traveled to the creepy and deserted Salton Sea down between Los Angeles and San Diego. I never plan on going there ever again for its creepyness factor, but without question it’s an amazing place to go visit…I mean if you like dead fish and deserted things.
I should be posting up some photos in the next couple days via iTravelStockPhoto.com
