THE SALTON SEA

I had a very productive 2 day expedition to The Salton Sea this week.The Salton Sea is a massive lake in the California desert southeast of Palm Springs and about 50 miles from the Mexican border. It was created by accident in the early 1900s as dikes broke on the Colorado River as men were trying to irrigate the Imperial Valley. The water flowed for years creating the lake which has no natural inlet except for irrigation run off. People have tried (and failed) many times to create resorts, retirement communities, etc. The lake is filled with fish but for unknown reasons there are massive die offs every so often littering the beach. It has also turned into an important bird flyway. This all makes for a very strange beauty. We also went to "Slab City" and Salvation Mountain which the creator (no pun intended) Leonard Knight has been painting since 1984.

I am leading a photo workshop to The Salton Sea March 6th and 7th.