Salton Sea Oddities

Salton Sea is a place that I’d heard of, but knew very little about. Well, I can now tell you all about and why it’s not high on your list of tourist spots to visit. Salton Sea lies directly south of Palm Springs/Joshua Tree area. From a distance you see turquoise waters and white sands. It would appear to be a really lovely spot to go dip your toes in the water. Sadly, that couldn’t be further from the truth. 



If left to it’s own devices, Salton Sea is a basin that every 500 years or so would naturally refill, support fish stocks & irrigation, then dry up again. Then along came us humans. In early 1900’s an engineering accident of failed levees & dams resulted in the Colorado River pouring into the Salton Sea basin for almost 2 years. It was almost at the point that nothing could be done to repair this, but engineers figured out a fix and the drainage into the Sea was stopped. So, now you have a basin full of lovely fresh water. Great for irrigation, great for birds, great for boaters & holiday makers? Well, yes. Until you realize that there’s no fresh water being fed in, with the exception of some rainwater (this is the desert, remember?). Thanks to evaporation (again, you’re in the desert), the water dries up and the salinity of the lake increases exponentially. 

Initially, it seemed like Salton Sea would be the ideal place to build holiday homes & communities. In Salton City, an entire community was planned, streets were named and paved. However, as the lake dried up and salinity increased, so did people’s interest in vacationing & living in the area. Most of these streets have never had a single house even built on them. Did I mention the smell of algae and decaying fish that’s pervasive when you reach the shoreline? Yup, there’s that. The marinas that were have been left high and dry by receding waters. We literally drove through one marina. Another, clearly built in recent years, is inaccessible now. There is no way to launch a boat in the Salton Sea, unless you can carry it to the water yourself.

Salton City view & map of the streets that are barren:




Driving through Salton City marina:



Dead fish & algae bloom


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