Epic Travel → North America → The West Coast → Southern California → South Central Desert → Salton City

Location: Southeast of Los Angeles

Time Required: 2 hours

Red Tape/Notes: None.

What’s Nearby?: Joshua Tree, Indio, Tahquitz Canyon, Villager Peak, Rabbit Peak

Salton City is a creepy place – I started referring to it as “the city that all hope has abandoned” after our visit. It may have improved since then, but at the time it was a truly eerie place, like a town straight out of The Walking Dead. It was originally conceived as a resort town in the 1950’s, but it never really took off and most of the buildings built on the shore of the Salton Sea were abandoned in the 70’s due to rising water levels. In the 80’s and 90’s, as pollution levels and salinity in the lake increased, further declines were experienced. In the 2000’s, development began again as the housing bubble grew, but it was hit hard when the market collapsed. Originally intended to support a community of 40,000 people, only around 4,000 actually live here. When we visited, houses which were under construction had been abandoned mid-project, the streets were empty, and their was odd stillness that shouldn’t exist in inhabited areas. The Salton Sea was similarly creepy, with the shore dried and cracked, caked in salt and littered here and there with dead fish. On the side of the road near the coast, we found an abandoned baby stroller. It summed up the place nicely.

Epic Travel → North America → The West Coast → Southern California → South Central Desert → Salton City