It only took a few months, but I finally made it to Salvation Mountain!

Salvation Mountain is a giant piece of art in the middle of the desert out by the Salton Sea. A guy named Leonard Knight squatted on the land and started painting Christian-themed murals and verses into the sand, building a mountain out of hay bales and mud. Because of the climate in where it is, there’s constant maintenance that has to be done because of the fading paint.

I went out to the race track for CVMA weekend, and Sunday morning after registration was wrapped up, I headed out towards the Salton Sea. It’s about 2 hours out of the way when going to/from the race track, and it’s all on surface roads. I drove through pretty and shallow canyons, farmlands, desert fields… I was out in the sticks!!!

I made a stop at Bombay Beach because of the photographs my friend Stretch had taken when he had come out this way. It’s a tiny little run down town (population less than 300). It was kind of scary to go around there by myself. A lot of houses in ruin, just shabby, shanty houses. I caught a couple pictures, though the place was pretty spooky.

Onward to Salvation Mountain!! I drove out to Niland, where I could count on both hands how many buildings were actually sitting on foundations and not wheels. It was a town of mobile homes. Again, a little spooky to drive through. It kind of reminded me of Mexico; like Rosarito or Encinada, as far as the buildings looked. Through Niland and onto a road heading nowhere, when I saw some color off on the horizon. Salvation Mountain is seriously a giant piece of color in the middle of grey, dusty dirt.

I got out of my car and walked around at all the Christian “God is Love” themed work and verses. There was a little room where people left tokens or mementos of their visit; old high school ID cards, letters, trophies… I didn’t realize you could walk on top of the mountain too, as long as you stayed on the “yellow brick road” that was painted in the dirt. There were a couple trailers parked out there; people who lived there and kept an eye on the property, I’m guessing.

When I got to the top, I saw a bunch more trailers scattered around behind the mountain. The famous “Slab City”. My curiosity really wanted to take me down there because of all I had seen on YouTube and read on Wikipedia about Slab City. But if you take the time to watch those videos and read those articles, you know I didn’t have the balls to go down there alone.

After leaving Salvation Mountain, I headed further south to hop on the 8 to come home. I found the sign marking the distance to Escondido, Oceanside and San Diego right after the Border Patrol checkpoint, and had to stop for a picture. I’d seen this sign where a surfer was carrying his surfboard headed in that direction. I think maybe at Palomar Mountain? Or maybe the surf museum? Stretch had also stopped to take a picture here, and I really liked how his turned out. But he’s a photographer, and I’m not, so mine didn’t come out as aesthetically pleasing as his!

It was a cool trip and was fun seeing things outside what I consider “normal”. It makes you realize how vast and different our state or region is, let alone our country or the world. I’m really looking forward to continuing my trips and adventures and experiencing life. I’m single, have no obligations… Now is the time!!