Had a job in San Diego again a few weeks back and Julie needed a vacation, so I got to take her to Salvation Mountain on a day trip out to Niland and the Salton Sea. It hasn't changed much... The guy who made it, Leonard Knight, I guess recently died in San Diego County. There is a fund to pay a few caretakers and there were a couple of new trailer homes there, so it's all official now... which is a funny thought when standing there taking in this glorious chaos.
It actually rained while we were there, which turned the toxic earth into a soupy mess that, when it dried, became adobe bricks on our shoes. I don't know if the earth there was always like that or if Mr. Knight has altered the chemical composition with his hundreds of thousands of gallons of paint, but I do know that it was gross. Worth it, though, to get a shot of Julie standing in front of the spot where I took one of her favorite pictures!
I mentioned when I was there before that there was a squatter's city right next to Salvation Mountain (I suppose that Salvation Mountain could be considered the welcome sign) called Slab City. It was featured in that movie Into The Wild. I would love to hang out there for a few days and photograph the crap out of it, but people-pictures aren't really my thing; I don't like talking to people long enough to ask them if they or their stuff can be in my photo. It's a handicap, but usually it's a beneficial one. We took a drive down the main road though and I got a couple of shots of some peripheral oddities.
I don't know, that blue pumpkin really freaked me out. So did the shoe tree.
Cool. I didn't realize the sky looked so menacing.
Posted by: Ms. Luongo | Sunday, March 23, 2014 at 12:39
These shots continue to amaze me Mike... and the blue pumpkin & shoe tree are absolutely outrageous... in a really odd but good kind of way. Thanks for sharing them!
Posted by: Dad (Norm) | Sunday, March 23, 2014 at 14:00