Visit The Dead Beach

If you like fish bones and that post-apocolypic-chic vibe, then have I got a vacation destination for you!

the Salton Sea

On the drive home from Phoenix to Los Angeles, I stopped at the Salton Sea to check out the abandoned lake I'd heard so much about. Ok I hadn't heard that much about it, but there is not much in the way of attractions between Phoenix and LA so call me desperate.

The first thing I noticed about the Salton Sea was its beauty; the second thing I noticed was the stench. Actually, if I am being honest, I could smell this pungent beach from (quite literally) a mile away. As soon as I drove off the exit, I could follow the scent of dead and rotting fish all the way to the shore.

Enough about the smell (apologies if your eating) let me lay some history on you. Two and a half hours east of Los Angeles, sits the man-made Salton Sea. Not so much a sea, as a lake, the great Salton was created on accident in 1905. For a long time the lake enjoyed a booming beach culture, and was visited by celebrities including Sunny Bono and the Beach Boys.

Unfortunately, the location of the lake proved to be its downfall, as runoff from nearby farms poisoned the water with salt and fertilizers. Because of this runoff, every year an algae bloom sucks the oxygen out of the lake, killing fish and other aquatic inhabitants. The carcasses of the deceased wash up on shore, and the bones are added to Salton's growing collection. As the fish died the residents of Salton left. Today, abandoned houses seem to outnumber residential. A prominent example of this desertion is Bombay Beach, where the shells of homes are left in different stages of decay.

Bombay Beach has been described as looking post-apocalyptic and I now realize this is meant as a compliment. Every year photographers and filmmakers flock to the small neighborhood to capture the perfect combination of bones and peeling paint.

Bombay Beach survives as a small community that is half residential, and half ghost town. While many houses are decrepit and falling apart, there are still people living on the beach in somewhat descent places. I was surprised to find a small convenience store and a restaurant in the neighborhood. Both looked like they were in desperate need of repairs, but at least they had avoided the graffiti that dominates the other houses.

Not often can one describe a place as both eerie and photogenic, so when those things come together it makes for an unusual experience. While the people I ran into were really friendly, the ruins of old houses made for a pretty surreal experience. Let's just say- I'm glad my Bombay Beach visit was during the day.

After poking around some sinister looking houses, I made my way to the water to investigate the smell. The beach looked like beautiful rich white sand. Upon closer inspection I realized it was indeed nothing but crushed up bones, bleached white. I knew the beach was made of bones coming in, but walking on ground up fish carcasses turned out to be a lot weirder than I though it would be. Not to mention, I had to watch my step for the source of the stench, dead and rotting fish scattered along the water line.

It was surreal seeing so much death on the beach then looking up and seeing a placid blue lake, filled with birds and the occasional kayak. The ruins of an old dock held a row of fat and happy pelicans which are probably the only residents of Salton that enjoy the smell. I was almost jealous.


Directions: Bombay Beach
Located off CA-111, 40 miles south of Indio, CA