The Salton Sea came to my attention via a No Reservations episode in which Anthony Bourdain traveled through the American Desert, the quasi no man’s land east of Palm Springs. For most Angelinos life ends at Palm Springs. Beyond the occasional weekend trip to a Palm Springs resort or the once-a-year pilgrimage to Coachella, few continue along Route 62 to desert towns of Twentynine Palms, Landers, or Pioneertown in the north or along Route 111 to Bombay Beach and the Salton Sea in the south. Joshua Tree National Park lies in-between. It’s an excursion all Angelinos should complete at somepoint during their Southern California lifetime – whether to take in the natural beauty or just to verify that, yeah, there’s life out there.
If you are looking for the unusual in an already unusual place the Integratron in Landers may be the most unusual place. The Integraton is a dome rising across the flat desert landscape. The dome was built in the 1950s and represents the best of California’s counter culture. George Van Tassel created a dome with the perfect sound based upon…instructions provided to him by visitors from the planet Venus. If anyone knows about good acoustics, it’s the Venusians. The current owner / operators of the Integraton allow visitors to hear the acoustics from themselves via a thirty-minute sound bath. Visitors lay on their back and a guide generates sound from moving a wooden stick around a crystal bowl. It’s soothing although I wouldn’t put the effect quite up there with a trip to a day spa for a massage. I’m no acoustics expert so I won’t comment on whether or not the sound could only be produced via a design using Venusian engineering. Pre-Instagram, it was possible to show up the morning of and book a sound bath, now reservations are needed weeks in advance to secure a mat.
Pappy and Harriet’s, in Pioneertown, is great motorcycle bar on the way back to “civilization”.
The best way to connect the northern desert towns with The Salton Sea is a drive through Joshua Tree National Park which gets a definitive, eh, rating from me. I think to fully appreciate the park you’d need to be interested in rock climbing. On a north to south drive it’s not much more than desert, a few hills, and a few trees. I find the before (Twentynine Palms, Integratron, Pappy and Harriet’s) and the after (Bombay Beach and Slab City) much more interesting. The park and its trees certainly wouldn’t inspire me to title a rock album after it.
If you are looking for the unusual in an already unusual place the Integratron in Landers may be the most unusual place. The Integraton is a dome rising across the flat desert landscape. The dome was built in the 1950s and represents the best of California’s counter culture. George Van Tassel created a dome with the perfect sound based upon…instructions provided to him by visitors from the planet Venus. If anyone knows about good acoustics, it’s the Venusians. The current owner / operators of the Integraton allow visitors to hear the acoustics from themselves via a thirty-minute sound bath. Visitors lay on their back and a guide generates sound from moving a wooden stick around a crystal bowl. It’s soothing although I wouldn’t put the effect quite up there with a trip to a day spa for a massage. I’m no acoustics expert so I won’t comment on whether or not the sound could only be produced via a design using Venusian engineering. Pre-Instagram, it was possible to show up the morning of and book a sound bath, now reservations are needed weeks in advance to secure a mat.
Pappy and Harriet’s, in Pioneertown, is great motorcycle bar on the way back to “civilization”.
The best way to connect the northern desert towns with The Salton Sea is a drive through Joshua Tree National Park which gets a definitive, eh, rating from me. I think to fully appreciate the park you’d need to be interested in rock climbing. On a north to south drive it’s not much more than desert, a few hills, and a few trees. I find the before (Twentynine Palms, Integratron, Pappy and Harriet’s) and the after (Bombay Beach and Slab City) much more interesting. The park and its trees certainly wouldn’t inspire me to title a rock album after it.
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Dry lake bed that filled up after diverting a Colorado River canal to increase waterflow. Saltier than an ocean but not the Great Salt Lake, however, salt concentration has been increasing 3% per year. California’s post WWII population boom saw resort towns pop up in the 1950s. Salt and pollution rendered the lake and towns inhabitable. But a few people have ridden it out. Some have even started to move back. There’s a Banana Museum where one didn’t exist five years ago. The abandonment has resulted in two of the greatest attractions in California: Bombay Beach and Slab City.
There isn’t much more to Bombay Beach then decaying building frames and smelly dead fish that have washed ashore. The “more” is The Ski Inn, a bar welcoming visitors to Bombay Beach. Per Bourdain and myself, the patty melt is decent, however, the dive atmosphere makes the visit worthwhile. Sure it’s just another dive bar but it’s also a dive bar in a dive town. It’s difficult to imagine what Bombay Beach and the Salton Sea were like in their heyday – The Ski Inn doesn’t provide much insight into those glory days but it does provide insight and perspective on an alternate and unique identify of the US.
There isn’t much more to Bombay Beach then decaying building frames and smelly dead fish that have washed ashore. The “more” is The Ski Inn, a bar welcoming visitors to Bombay Beach. Per Bourdain and myself, the patty melt is decent, however, the dive atmosphere makes the visit worthwhile. Sure it’s just another dive bar but it’s also a dive bar in a dive town. It’s difficult to imagine what Bombay Beach and the Salton Sea were like in their heyday – The Ski Inn doesn’t provide much insight into those glory days but it does provide insight and perspective on an alternate and unique identify of the US.
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Back in the 1960s this place was rockin...
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In the 2010s...not so much.
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If you continue south on CA Route 111 from Bombay Beach you will reach a town called Niland which doesn't have much substance other than it being the gateway to Slab City. What is Slab City? It's an off-the-grid community of squatters who for various reasons have decided to create their own society. What's off-the-grid - no electricity, no plumbing, no cable, etc. But the community does have power generators and you are still within range of cell phone towers so you're not completely in no man's land.
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Slab City has an attraction called Salvation Mountain which ironically for a community of people that want to get away from everyone tends to draw a toooooon of Instagrammers. When I visited the mountain was packed with day trippers.
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So your best course of action when visiting Slab City is to spend the night. Pick up some beer and snacks in Niland, gather around a camp fire, and hear stories of life off-the-grid.
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Slab City gained some publicity after the publication and theatrical release of Into the Wild. Slab City is a town where the main character, Chris McCandless spent a few months before heading north to Alaska. I couldn't spend a few months here. After a night here I was looking for a good meal and a hot shower, not looking to spend more time in the wilderness.
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Off the grid doesn't mean no entertainment. A few nights a week (I think Wednesdays and Saturdays) there's a community concert.
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IDYLLWILD
You know before you arrive that a place called Idyllwild, that's high in the mountains, that's a small community away from everything...you just know it's going to be awesome. And it is. Just the drive up, with its curves and panoramic overlooks is worth the trip. We drove up here one afternoon, looped around the town, took a few photos, grab a coffee, ate lunch and drank a beer at the Idyllwild Brewpub and then headed back to Highland. I need to spend a few nights here on a future trip.
You know before you arrive that a place called Idyllwild, that's high in the mountains, that's a small community away from everything...you just know it's going to be awesome. And it is. Just the drive up, with its curves and panoramic overlooks is worth the trip. We drove up here one afternoon, looped around the town, took a few photos, grab a coffee, ate lunch and drank a beer at the Idyllwild Brewpub and then headed back to Highland. I need to spend a few nights here on a future trip.
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