San Diego: Chicano Park

I finally got a chance to upload these photos form a recent trip to San Diego's Chicano park; a great use of urban space. 

Lunch at this bomb fish taco spot...the micheladas were off the hook. 

Seafood Bar Mariscos La Cacho

3120 Main St, Chula Vista, CA 91911

(619) 422-2287

Slab City

New Year's weekend I escaped back to the desert to be with my loved ones and to continue my exploring of the Salton Sea area.

Since my last adventure at the Salton Sea I have been kind of obsessed with the area and documenting  the beauty back to Los Angeles.

As I  mentioned before I been going to the area for about four years, but I was never able to explore it the way I wanted to.If I did go on a small adventure I always went alone which was not as fun as having my good friends join me.

I read about Salvation Mountain on various websites and seen it on flickr pages while browsing about the Salton Sea, I knew this place was  a must see for my next trip. The concept is religious and shouts god and love at you, but even if you are not religious it is a wonderful piece of folk art. The work is created by a man named Leonard Knight, he started creating the mountain over 15 years ago and has been working on it since. He uses natural adobe from the local area and anything from trash and tires. All the paint is donated by people who just come by and want to help him out.

Slab City is not an official city, it  is a dreamy campsite on the outskirts of the town of Niland. It got it's name Slab City because of the concrete slabs left over from a World War II military base. Slab City is somewhat of a squatter, R.V town with no working electricity or running water. Most folks go into town to fill up on necessities. At night there is the lovely smell of  wood burning lighting up the bleak desert.
There are people that camp out for recreational purposes, but there are many people that live there year-round. It is known as the last free place, meaning you don't got to pay anybody to camp-out or live in the area. Even though it is not an official town there is still friendly people and a sense of community.

Leonard Knight

Niland

Hippie Graffiti

This part of Slab City was awesome, there were lots of young hippie, punk kids hanging out painting. I guess it is an annual tradition to come here for New Years. They had an old bus they traveled in and were stocked up with food and drinks.

Midnight Ridazz up @ Slab City

Check out the rest of the photos on my Flickr page.


 Here are a few archived blog posts about the area.
October 2008 " Vacancy" My stay at a cheap motel in Niland.
May 2008 " Desierto"  Photos from Brawley and Calipatria.
July 2008  " Desierto update" More photos from Brawley and Calipatria.
You Tube Video " Slab City" 2002

Salton Sea: An Awful Paradise I Love

I finally got a chance to go explore the Salton Sea yesterday with two of my good friends. For the past couple of years I have passed by the sea and always wanted to go in and explore the area.  I was never with the right people that would be down so I never got a chance to do so.

Yesterday we  packed up our truck and made our way on a three hour journey to paradise.

The Salton Sea used to be a place that was lively like Palm Springs or Lake Havasu. In the 1940's and 1950's it was the a popular spot for tourists until there started being problems with the water and salinity level. The Salton Sea is saltier then the ocean which caused problems with the fish that lived in the water. As time passed it started becoming more and more polluted.  The Salton Sea  literally was dying out. There are still many  spots to camp out and take an R.V but it is not the same as the glory days the Salton Sea once had. 

Read more about the Salton Sea here

When you get a chance please check out this documentary on the Salton Sea it is an inside look at what it once was and what it is today.

The Plagues and Pleasures of the Salton Sea

This was a magnificent find it was an abandoned house surrounded by tons of palm trees. It reminded me of something out of Gilligan's Island . The house was hidden in the cut it was a trip because it looked like whoever lived there just got up and left. The house was deteriorated but you could tell it used to be nice. It had a Mexican style adobe look to it. There were lots of windows which gave it tons of natural lighting. It had built in shelves and lots of details and ornamentation. I would have love to live in a house like this, but it makes you think what happened and why is it abandoned?

 

Everything outside the house  was covered with dead palm leaves.

 

This bathroom is filthy, but it has beautiful details.

Through out the whole trip we seen over a dozen abandoned houses or R.V's. I guess maybe there is no jobs in the area so people can survive or they are summer homes left forgotten. 

 

Boogie Man

 

I have tons of more photos so please go to my Flickr page and check them out!

I had fun exploring this area and we plan to go back since we ran out of day light this time. For updates on the next adventure keep posted to the blog.

Peace,

D.J