Beau Rogers
Dusk at the Salton Sea's Bombay Beach
My grandfather used to use a not-politically correct saying about California to describe the weirdness of the state, but I don't think that he ever visited the Salton Sea, which in my opinion is the strangest part of the Golden State, at least geologically. In 1905, some engineers tried to divert a spur of the Colorado River to the Sonoran Desert for crop irrigation, but their plan didn't work out to their expectations, and they ended up flooding out an old dried lakebed. Thus, a new saline lake was created, and for a few decades, the location became a resort, vacation destination, but the saline water, without an outflow to the ocean, continued to become more and more salty, and most of the fish in the lake died.
This photo was made at a location called Bombay Beach, and these concrete rocks were once part of the support system for a boat dock. Below where I was standing to take this photo were thousands, if not millions, of fish bones. Today, most of the buildings are abandoned, but there are still about 200 people who live there. The closest gas station is 20 miles away, so most of the residents drive around on electric golf carts. I only spent one evening there, but I am hoping to go there for a few days in the future. There are a few decent documentaries that have been made about both the Salton Sea and Bombay Beach.
Dusk at the Salton Sea's Bombay Beach
My grandfather used to use a not-politically correct saying about California to describe the weirdness of the state, but I don't think that he ever visited the Salton Sea, which in my opinion is the strangest part of the Golden State, at least geologically. In 1905, some engineers tried to divert a spur of the Colorado River to the Sonoran Desert for crop irrigation, but their plan didn't work out to their expectations, and they ended up flooding out an old dried lakebed. Thus, a new saline lake was created, and for a few decades, the location became a resort, vacation destination, but the saline water, without an outflow to the ocean, continued to become more and more salty, and most of the fish in the lake died.
This photo was made at a location called Bombay Beach, and these concrete rocks were once part of the support system for a boat dock. Below where I was standing to take this photo were thousands, if not millions, of fish bones. Today, most of the buildings are abandoned, but there are still about 200 people who live there. The closest gas station is 20 miles away, so most of the residents drive around on electric golf carts. I only spent one evening there, but I am hoping to go there for a few days in the future. There are a few decent documentaries that have been made about both the Salton Sea and Bombay Beach.