March 15th – 17th

Salvation Mountain and Slab City

Slab City, California

What is Southern California without hippy love and that good ol’ American free spirit? It can be found at Salvation Mountain and Slab City.

A 2-hour drive North of the Mexican Border, in the middle of the Sonoran Desert, is where you can find Slab City.

First: Sultan Sea

Only 15 minutes away from Slab City is a huge lake, the Salton Sea. This huge lake was actually a huge accident. In 1905 engineers tried to increase water flow for irrigation from the Colorado River through a system of canals. The canals filled with sediments so workers cut into the river’s bank to increase water flow, but the canals overflowed and the river dumped water into the Salton Basin for over two years creating a giant lake in the middle of the desert. This man-made lake is 43 feet deep, 15 miles wide, by 35 miles long. The biggest problem with this lake is its salt content. The land that the lake sits on top of was once at the bottom of the ocean so it naturally had salt. When this new rush of water filled the land it dredged up all that salt, and now the Salton Sea is saltier than the Pacific Ocean. Almost nothing can survive in it and it the water can no longer be used on farm plants. Bird species have learned to adapt and this area has become a bird watchers paradise, otherwise this area never really took off as a place to live.

Sonny Bono! The Southeastern corner of the lake has been federally protected to help maintain the bird population.

Like birds can read.

A view of the lake. It’s so big it’s hard to see the other side. It stunk like the ocean… dead fish. We didn’t stay long.

Walked up to a lookout point. Laura wasn’t very impressed. To be honest, we couldn’t get over the smell. It wasn’t really worth the stop.

On our way to Slab City. Loved the perspective from all of the power lines.

Salvation Mountain

Entrance sign at Salvation Mountian.

This giant art installation in the desert was created by the visionary artist Leanord Knight starting in 1984. He was a long time resident of Slab City and devoted to Christianity and God. Knight wanted to create a masterpiece to show his love of God and to remind everyone to pray, repent, and love. This massive structure is built out of straw bales, adobe clay, and thousands of gallons of lead-free paint. Anyone and everyone is welcome to visit this place. Knight sadly passed away in 2014, but volunteers continue to paint and fix the structure so that it can be enjoyed for generations to come. In 2002 Salvation Mountain was recognized by the Folk Art Society of America to be a protected piece of art. We loved this place. The design, architecture, and colors pop off the brown dry landscape surrounding it. Neither of us are very religious, but we couldn’t help feeling our spirits lift after seeing all the messages of love.

Some funky repurposed art surrounding the mountain.

Selfie with the Mountain.

We met a kitty!!

Follow the yellow brick road.

So much color!

Climbed to the top above the word “God”.

Several Bible passages cover the mountain.

To the right of the mountain is a “cave-like” area.

Wow! The ingenuity and inspiration to create this is amazing.

Even part of a car made it into the sculpture.

This little room was covered in old pictures of Leonard Knight and the early stages of his creation.

Notice the hay bales in the upper left corner.

That’s a lot of paint cans. All lead-free too. Volunteers continue to paint the mountain as the colors don’t last long in the harsh sun. People are still encouraged to donate paint.

Back in front of the mountain.

The Mountain has a mailbox!

Salvation Mountain from a distance. We camped out about 1/4 of a mile to the right of it.

Slab City

A short walk up the street from Salvation Mountain is the center of Slab City. Slab City is a hard place to describe. It is a small intentional community of squatters. This place once was a military base, but all that is left is several cement slabs, hence the name. Today about 150-300 permanent residents live on these slabs in all sorts of structures and RV’s. During the winter months, several thousand RV’ers and Campers come here to “snowbird”.

This community technically lives here illegally, but the local government has turned a blind eye, although that is starting to change. In a rather interesting way, the community has learned to live with no laws or rules, but still, they police each other enough to keep people from getting seriously hurt.

Our takeaway, this place is a Libertarian/Anarchists paradise. No rules except to respect your neighbor. We kept saying it reminded us of the movie Mad Max. One can live for free here, there are no public services, and no water or sewer hookups. The full-time residents have figured out how to create some structure by naming roads, running a library, and on Saturdays put on shows at the little music stage. People are living off the grid, building their homes out of recycled material, and trading goods. It’s not all perfect though. From an outsiders perspective, it seems like mental health is a big problem and in the summertime temperatures can reach 120 degrees.

Surprisingly there is a map.

Most people live in old RV’s or buses.

Need a shoe? You’re free to take one of these.

Completely covered in recycled materials. Makes an awesome sculpture.

Closeup!

Finding a little bit of humor in this hidden object.

People are free to decorate their homes however they please. Why be dull, when you can use found objects to make your home a masterpiece?

Community bulletin board lets residents know about any activities or events going on.

One resident puts on a gardening class.

There are even signs to help people find their way. A little bit of infrastructure and organization.

A homemade solar-powered car next to a sleek modern Chevy Volt. Just goes to show that not everyone who lives here is poor. Some people just really like the kind of life you can live here.

The Range is the official stage in Slab City. Just about every Saturday throughout the year people will gather to play music, read poetry, or act out however they please.

Several veterans reside here. Many come here to get away from the pressures that come with living in society. As outsiders, it seems like a place for people, not just veterans, to either embrace or escape from their mental health problems.

There is even a hostel with a cafe for visitors to stay in.

Sweet art!

On the farthest corner of the city is a little outdoor art gallery complete with a broken down plane.

This truck really reminded us of the movie Mad Max.

The entrance to the East Jesus art gallery.

This place has some really cool and profound art. This one was our favorite sculpture. We could really agree with the message this piece is trying to tell. There was so much other great art we just don’t have time to show.

Back near the center of Slab City, we walked past this funky design of a house.

Just next door we met a full-time resident of Slab City. His name is Raven. He was very kind to talk to us a bit and tell us about what it’s like to live here.

Well, this is Raven’s house. It’s not much. Lots of pallets and bed sheets make up his home. But he is super proud of his work and how little he needs to be happy. After several months of living out of our Jeep, we couldn’t agree more.

Raven was so excited talking about his home that he invited us in. Yes, we happily went in with him. Some people will probably cringe upon hearing this, but after talking with him we had no sense that he met any harm. He was just really proud of his work and wanted to show it off. Here he is showing up the design of his kitchen and how everything is within arms reach.