I just got back from a couple of days driving around the Salton Sea area. It is hard to believe that this was once a thriving recreation area in the 1950s through the early 1970s. Unfortunately, it became an environmental catastrophe due to contamination of the water from excess farm runoff that subsequently promoted the growth of toxic algae blooms. The sea, also lacking natural circulation, became ever more toxic and saline. Disease ultimately lead to mass avian and fish die-offs and a subsequent virtual end to tourism in the area.
Today the Salton Sea area is a rather eerie site with mostly empty shells of decaying buildings surrounding a lake largely devoid of life and activity. There are still some residents in the area as well as some RV parks here and there. Some color and creativity does seem to be coming to the area, most notably in Bombay Beach, where there is now a small but growing artist community. Mostly though, things are pretty much the same as they have been in the many years since the area was largely abandoned.
It has always been an area that I was curious to explore and bring back some images and memories of a bygone era. In doing so, I wanted to keep things small and light as far as camera gear. I wanted to be able to easily walk around and focus on what I was seeing rather than lugging around a backpack full of heavy gear. For this, I decided to go with my Fuji X-T3 and just a few zoom lenses.
I also felt that the natural colors and film-like character of Fuji would work well with this type of photography. The area just calls out for a slightly more vintage look. As usual, I like to shoot in raw and see where the images take me from there.
As far as specifics, I brought the following gear.
Fuji X-T3 (x2)
Fuji 10-24mm f/4
Fuji 18-55mm f/2.8-4
Fuji 55-200mm f/3.5-4.8
All of this along with the requisite spare batteries, extra SD cards, and a cleaning kit all fit easily in a Domke canvas shoulder bag. The three zooms worked perfectly and covered me for everything I wanted to do. As I was shooting mostly during the day and into the golden hours, lighting was good. For dimly lit static interior spaces all of the lenses I brought are image stabilized making longer shutter speeds easy to handhold.
My itinerary was pretty straightforward. A full day is probably enough to cover the area. However, when including drive time to get there, I felt two days was more appropriate. The first day I drove from Indio, which is north of the lake, down the west side of the lake along Highway 86. This route took me first to the communities of Desert Shores, Salton Sea Beach, and, Salton City. Each area is worth exploring for their own unique character. As a note, the former beach areas are generally fenced off and largely inaccessible from each of these communities.
The following day, after overnighting in Indio, I went down the west side of the lake on Highway 111. This is where the Salton Sea State Park is along with some camping areas. Most of the areas were pretty open with only a few RVs here and there. Further down down the road, I encountered Bombay Beach. Similar to the areas on the west side, it has certainly seen better days. A few hardy souls and a growing number of artists, however, do live in the area. The beach areas on this west side are generally accessible with signs appropriately warning about potentially contaminated water and sand.
I felt I came away with some interesting images of some parts of the area. It is interesting to see how quickly buildings and infrastructure deteriorate after only a comparatively short period of time. Subsequent years will surely claim more of it as the desert heat, wind blown sand, and summer monsoons continue to ravage what is left.
Some of the images taken on this trip can be found here in the Salton Sea Gallery.