Down to the Salton Sea

Literally "down", because the surface of the sea is over 200 feet below sea level!  This was a bit of a drive from Palm Springs, but we had heard much about the area as an interesting place to see, so we took a ride there last week.  The Salton Sea was a dry lake bed for thousands of years when in 1905 some entrepreneurial engineers, who were trying to bring water to the Imperial Valley of California, built a canal from the Colorado River to the streams leading into the valley.  Things got a bit out of control and some river banks collapsed, causing pretty much all the flow of the Colorado River to divert to the Imperial Valley.  It took them 15 months to fix the break and by that time, the dry lake bed was now the largest lake in California! There is no outlet from the lake, so there was nothing much anyone could do but make the best of it.

By the 1950's, the Salton Sea was a hugely popular recreation area for the booming Southern California population.  The Sea got more visitors per year than Yosemite. Pictures show hordes of station wagons with big fins parked around the lake.  They had to build a 12-lane boat ramp to accommodate the traffic.  Since then, a combination of two back-to-back hurricanes and the increasing salinity and dropping level of the water destroyed much of the recreation value of the lake.  Now it is saltier than the ocean and much of the tourist infrastructure is destroyed.  Squatters and transients have occupied the surrounding desert and the towns around the area are very depressed.

But the Salton Sea is magnificent in many ways.  It's gorgeous blue water, the spectacular mountain backdrop and over 4 million birds make it a photographer's dream. Half of all known North American bird species have been sighted here. We spent a whole day exploring and didn't really finish, so we may go back before we leave Southern California.  Some highlights below:

80% of the endangered white pelican population hang out at the Salton Sea

Decaying docks are common

Near the Salton Sea is a cultural phenomenon called Salvation Mountain.  Built by a man who lived in the nearby squatters area called Slab City, it represents a lifetime of work to create...well, whatever it is, in the desert.

Finally we headed back to the sea for the sunset, which didn't disappoint!

Movies, Mountains, Chicken Soup, Windmills and Animals--What Do They Have in Common?

We are settling in to our stay in Palm Springs and it really feels like a "vacation".  I know that concept seems weird for two people and a dog who are on perpetual vacation in a sense, but here's the deal.  We spend the bulk of our time in national and state parks, national forests and the occassional low-budget commercial RV park when we are traveling.  We seldom have hookups for water and sewer, so we have to limit our showers and trudge to the pit toilet to conserve waste tank space.  We camp on dirt or sand or gravel and constantly track stuff in the house.  We are often a LONG drive from a grocery store or decent restaurants and never go to movies.  So being in Palm Springs, with all the amenities of civilization and culture nearby, and camped in a luxury campground where the landscaping is similar to an upscale resort and they pick up your trash every morning...well, it feels like a vacation to us. The view from my window as I write this:

So far we have been to two film festival movies, one from Sweden was great ("The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window", if it's on Netflix, watch it!), the other from Switzerland ("Chubby") was very good.  Later today we go see "Song from the Forest", set in Africa.  We have revisited an old favorite restaurant, Shermans, which is as close to a traditional NYC deli I have seen anywhere.  We spent yesterday at the Living Desert zoo and I got up at 5:00 AM to shoot the sunrise/moonset down at the wind farm.  I am signed up for a photo workshop on Sunday and we have several more movies to see over the next 5 days.  Lots of fun to come.

The wind farm outside of Palm Springs has over 3,200 turbines and generates about 1.5% of California's energy needs

Still a little snow on the mountains from the big storm last week

The stork's knees are backwards! 

We had fun feeding the 'keets  in the "Birds of Australia" aviary.  The exhibit should be called "Birds of the Pet Store"

"Don't you DARE touch my rat!" 

Sunset from the roof of our trailer

Back in Palm Springs

We spent two months in Palm Springs last winter and really liked it, so we are here again.  We wanted to hit the International Film Festival, so we have tickets to seven films in eight days...saw our first one last night.  We also want to hit some new sights like the Living Desert Zoo, Painted Canyon and maybe even get to Salvation Mountain (wait till you see THAT place, look it up online).  We are staying in a very high-end RV resort, not our usual style, but it is like a mini-vacation with paved sites, gorgeous landscaping, a golf course, six pools and many events like dinner dances.  Here are a couple shots of our neighborhood:

So all around us on three sides it is like an oasis and out our back window over the wall--the desert (taken from our RV roof).

We put up our bird feeder and hummingbird feeder, since we will be here a while, and were rewarded pretty quickly by these little visitors.  Looking forward to seeing more!

This is a Verdin, a desert scrub bird.  He keeps trying to drink from our hummingbird feeder.

Male Costa's Hummingbird.  I love his cheek feathers!

Leaving San Diego

Tomorrow we head out to Palm Springs and the desert.  San Diego has been a fabulous place to stay and we could definitely see coming back here.  Our campground at Santee Lakes has been beautiful, convenient and quiet.  There are so many great places to visit in the San Diego area, we haven't really explored much of it.  The beaches and beach towns are great, the city itself is beautiful and clean, the freeways are fast and rarely clogged with traffic.The weather is about as good as it gets. People
who live here love living here and are very proud of their city. It is about as ethnically diverse as one could imagine and it is clearly a young city with lots of kids and young families.  We liked it a lot.

When I took Lucas to the airport (at 5:30 AM!) I took the opportunity to find some good shots of the pre-dawn and sunrise times around the city.

On our last day, we spent some time in Balboa Park, the site of the 1916 Exposition.  The architecture is wonderful, there are about a dozen museums and the grounds are amazing.  We were there on New Years Day and it was packed with people having fun.  We wish we had spent more time here.

The Sprekels organ pavillion.  A full size pipe organ outdoors.

The Artist's Studios of Balboa Park, a creative village within the park

We also visited the Hotel Del Coronado on our last day.  Opening in 1888, it is a vast relic of that luxurious era, set right on the beach with an ice skating rink, restaurants, shops, etc.  Fun place to visit and if I ever return to San Diego, I will definitely come back to do some night photography here!

 Goodbye San Diego, we'll miss you!

Dog Beach at Del Mar

Getting close to time to leave San Diego, we hit another dog beach and beach town after the rains cleared on New Years Eve day.  Del Mar is north of La Jolla and reminded us of Laguna Beach up in Orange County.  Lovely town and great beaches.

We went to Pacific Beach for a great seafood dinner at a local joint that had a great concept.  You order from the counter and first pick your kind of fish, then pick a marinade from a choice of about ten, then pick how you want the fish served-fish tacos, on a salad or in a dinner with sides.  The fish was cooked perfectly and the atmosphere was pure Southern California beach town.  On the way home, we stopped to shoot some night shots of San Diego from the Balboa Park bridge.  A very beautiful city!