Abandoned home at Salton Sea Beach. Clothes still hanging in the closet - after many years.

One of many abandoned homes and trailers surrounding the Salton Sea.

The Salton Sea is an incongruous sight: a huge body of water in the middle of a desert. And with good reason. California's largest lake was created purely by accident in 1905 when floodwaters from the Colorado River burst past a series of dams and settled in a naturally salty depression more than 228 feet below sea level. Ever since, the lake has been a Southern California oasis, rich in wildlife. Its future, however, is in doubt.

The Salton Sea was once a popular place for boating, swimming, fishing, etc., but an increase in the salt level of the water caused large numbers of fish to die and the water became foul. This, in addition to a couple of hurricanes in the 1970's, caused the communities surrounding the sea to deteriorate.

While there are several people that still live around the Sea today - and places like Salton City have been mostly cleared of abandoned buildings - many Salton Sea communities are still littered with abandoned and decaying trailers, marinas, houses, etc.

These days there are NOT that many dead fish on the shores - in fact, on doesn't really smell dead fish around the shores anymore.

The Sea itself is technically safe to swim in. The lake is NOT polluted with sewage, rather there are times of year when the decaying algae blooms give off a surfer odor which only smells like sewage. I must say, again, that the smell from the lake has actually been decent lately.

The Salton Sea was recently featured on Life After People on the History Channel.

Several still photos of the Salton Sea are on my Flickr page - with more being added regularly: http://www.flickr.com/photos/slworking/sets/72157605264326878/

Grand reopening of the Salton Sea History Museum. Now located at 72-120 S. Lincoln Street (end of road across creek), Mecca, CA 92254

News video: http://www.kesq.com/video/30403959/index.html

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Salton-Sea-History-Museum/125597164130869

Museum homepage: http://www.saltonseamuseum.org/

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• salton
• sea
• abandoned
• california
• desert
• home
• urbex
• urban
• exploration
• decay
• lake
• flood
• nature
• disaster

[slworking2]

@evaspirits It looks a lot different now, as you can see. The North Shore Yacht Club was recently renovated, however. Otherwise, it's mostly decay out here.

[slworking2]

@scarlette536 I was being funny - of course I didn't really expect the light to come on. I have, however, explored an abandoned hospital - St. Mary's Mercy Hospital in Gary, Indiana - where the electricity is actually still on. :-)

[scarlette536]

Did you expect the light to come on when you flipped the switch?

[evaspirits]

around 40 years ago I was riding my bike all over the place. Wow long time!