Over the past few years, visiting the Salton Sea took on an urgency of almost religious significance for me. Yeah, I loved the movie, The Salton Sea, but this only served to strengthen my desire to visit the Salton Sea. It did not create this desire in the first place. My passion to visit was sparked by the stories and legends I heard of the Salton Sea, the denizens of the Salton Sea and the pictures I had seen of the Salton Sea and the surrounding area.

I was not to be disappointed…

One of the first things I observed upon entering the Salton Sea area, was this example of industrial carnage. And anyone that knows me, knows that I have a great artistic appreciation for industrial carnage. It’s like poetry to me – in three dimensions.

The above pictures were immediately followed by a string of abandoned homes. I was on the proverbial Cloud 9.

There are abandoned buildings and houses all over the eastern regions of the Salton Sea.

The Salton Sea is off to the left in this picture.

And this is it. The Salton Sea…

From 1944-45, B-29s from the U.S. Army’s 393rd Heavy Bombardment Squadron, commanded by Lt. Col. Paul Tibbets, made regular but highly secret practice flights from Wendover Air Base in Utah to drop dummies of a new bomb into the Salton Sea.

On Aug. 6, 1945, Tibbets and his crew, in the Enola Gay, dropped the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan.

Dead tilapia line the shores of the Salton Sea – One peculiarity of the Salton Sea are the periodic algal blooms that cause the Salton Sea tilapia, to die in massive numbers.

Pumped up to finally be at the Salton Sea.

As with every other place I slept on my trip, I had the entire area to myself.

1960: North Shore Beach and Yacht Club Estates opened on the north side of the Sea.

I don’t know why it was there, but I thought it was creepy.