The Prettiest Ugly Places

Over the past few years, I have grown increasingly obsessed with The Great Southwest…particularly the desert regions.  One of the things I love most is how absolutely rugged and untenable the desert is.  Plus, to me, it’s just absolutely gorgeous.  I have yet to visit a majority of the biggest attractions in the American Southwest, but I’m making headway.  Today, in an effort to “get the hell out of Dodge”, I packed a lunch and jumped into Old Ranger with a tank full of gas and a lot of thinking to do.  I decided to use this solo time to do some brainstorming for a few scripts/stories I’m working on.

I saw rolling hills, alpine mountain towns, dry desert communities of people rusting their lives away and ghost towns sitting on the banks of the best laid plans of mice and men gone awry.  I went on a hike and I didn’t see a single interstate highway all day long…back roads, dirt roads, no roads took me to the places I visited.  Here’s how I went about “Running Down a Dream.”

Barona Resort & Casino: Not a big gambling fan, but the Barona reservation is BEAUTIFUL

Valley between Barona and Ramona, Ca. (Note to self: this place is pretty sweet...go back sometime)

Cuyamaca Lake: Hmmmmm...today is Sunday. Oh well

This is a hike that I did a while back and I loved it.  Good thing orangutans aren’t native to this area…I’d have been shot for sure.

Cuyamaca Rancho State Park = Amazing

HWY 78 East from Julian toward Anza-Borrego Desert

It was at this point that I realized that, despite how much I love the mountains and the trees…something inside of me just loves the rugged desert more.

HWY 78 East toward Ocotillo Wells

HWY 78 East toward Ocotillo Wells

Anza-Borrego Desert Rats live here

I saw a man in a nothing but shorts bathing from a five-gallon bucket outside his 5th Wheel trailer.  You’d think it’s a camp ground, but people build permanent porches and other structures off their trailers.

The Hills Have Eyes

The Salton Sea

West Shores, Salton City

The Salton Sea

Casualty of war

I’m a map fiend.  When Amy and I drove from Houston to Santa Barbara with everything we own in the back of a U-Haul, I noticed in my atlas that there was this huge lake at the south end of the state.  It said it was called Salton Sea.  I was fascinated by this thing and I wondered what on God’s green earth this Salton Sea could be.

Come to find out, Salton Sea has some pretty crazy history.  In the 1950′s, everyone was convinced that this area would become a massively profitable tourism area with lush vegetation, wildlife and great fishing.  They even thought Salton Sea would be a retreat for all of the major Hollywood celebs.  Well, they didn’t take into account that:

A.  Salton Sea is well over 200 ft below sea level, making the land high in selenium and salt.

B.  The water is riddled with high salinity levels.

C. The water is too stagnate to naturally lower it’s bacteria and salt content.

Here are some other highlights about Salton Sea’s history:

1935: Salton Sea’s level measured at –248 feet below sea level.

1941-45: Commercial fishermen use Salton Sea to supply mullet to coastal fish markets after German submarines make ocean fishing hazardous.

1944-45: B-29s from the U.S. Army’s 393rd Heavy Bombardment Squadron, commanded by Lt. Col. Paul Tibbets, make regular but highly secret practice flights from Wendover Air Base in Utah and drop dummies of a new bomb into the Salton Sea. On Aug. 6, 1945, Tibbets and his crew in the Enola Gay drop the first Atomic Bomb over Hiroshima, Japan.

1956: Salton Sea’s level measured at –234.5 feet below sea level.

1958: M. Penn Phillips Co., a subsidiary of Holly Corp., maps out a community on the West Shore of Salton Sea, calling it Salton City.

1960: North Shore Beach and Yacht Club Estates opened on North side of Sea.

1961: The California Department of Fish and Game predicts the Salton Sea will eventually die because of increasing salinity levels by 1980 or 1990.

1979: Salton Sea’s surface elevation recorded at –228 feet below sea level.

1992: 150,000 eared grebes die on Salton Sea, capturing national attention.

1994: Die-off of eared grebes claims 20,000 birds.

This is what it looked like

My day was exactly what it needed to be.