Niland, Calif. Imperial Valley

This is long but it was a busy & Fun day. Sorry some of the pix have spots. looks like my camera had some dust on the lens.

Yesterday March 19, 2010 we took a drive about an hr. away to Salvation Mountain, The Slabs Bombay Beach & The Mud Pots. This is all up on the southeast side of The Salton Sea & west side of Chocolate Mountains.

Below are the Pix of Salvation Mountain. It is @ the entrance of Slab City. Salvation Mountain. is being built by a man named Leonard Knight  

 

Below is us girls Nancy, Sandy B. Sandy A. & Karen up on the top of the mtn. & the other pix is of Leonard Knight.

Slab City from top of Salvation Mountain.

 

On to Slab City it’s an old abandoned Military Base. During WWII it was called Camp Dunlap & was used to train Marines. At the end of the war it was closed & the buildings were eventually torn down. Leaving The Slabs. In 1961 the land was returned to Calif. 

Below is the entrance bldg. & a pix of Nancy’s Garmin  

   

As you can see there is everything from tents to expensive rigs.

     

The community Bulletin Board & one of the live band stages.

It’s a well rounded community Church & all. We even found this Jag.

 

It was an interesting place I have been wanting to see. But I will take it off the list of places to spend the nite.It was a sad looking place. 

We stopped in Niland for lunch. Don’t remember the name but the food was good It’s right next to the post office.

Mike, Charley, Steve & Reynold              Sandy A. Sandy B. Karen & Nancy

We took a run up to Bombay Beach. it’s a very dumpy community a little more north of the slabs. We went to see the Salton Sea & some of the area that was flooded in about 1905 ?? It’s 225 ft below sea level. They have built an earthen dam to keep the Salton Sea away from community.

Done there. I’m not showing the town It’s sad. We then drove south on Hwy-111 past Salvation Mtn. to the Mud Pots. The Salton Sea Mud pots or Davis-Schrimpf Seep Fields {geothermal Mud Volcanoes} are off Hwy-111 on a dirt road. They are a bubbling volcano of mud that make blerping noises as the gasses bubble up from beneath the ground. It’s (70 meters) over 200 ft below sea level. We were able to park on the road & walk out to see them. It reminded me of Death Valley @ it’s lowest point.  

   

That was the end of our day. It was a long day but great fun to venture into a new area of the USA with friends.

To see more pix of our outing go to Mike & Sandy's blog She has a YouTube link of the Mud Pots Bubbling.

Got home in time to do some more Cross Stitch. Steve finished a house he has been carving out of Cotton tree Bark. Here are some pix. This is his first 3-D carving. I think he has done a fantastic job. Thanks Reynold for sharing your teaching talent Steve is looking forward to doing more carving.

    

That’s all for now.