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AmericaCalifornia

Salvation Mountain, and other California Desert Oddities

by kylebvick October 26, 2014
October 26, 2014
Salvation Mountain, and other California Desert Oddities

Salvation Mountain is in the Californian desert a couple of miles away from the Salton Sea and the abandoned vacation spot Bombay Beach. This desert art installation is near Slab City, the wild community that lives outside of society. In this part of the California desert, it’s a different world and culture. This is the otherside of California away from the coastal palms and beautiful beaches. Exploring the desert is another dimension to this beautiful state. It is probably one of the weirdest places and experiences you will ever see in California, and maybe even one of the oddest place in the US. Salvation Mountain was created by an artist named Leonard Knight. The message of his art installation is simple: God is love. This is Leonard’s tribute to God and his gift of Jesus and salvation to the world. The whole place has Bible verses and quotes all over different cars and decorated hills. The installation is 50 feet high and made out of adobe clay painted all different bright colors. You can read more about the art on the official website here.

How to get there

Salvation Mountain

Salvation Mountain is 3 hours southeast of Los Angeles and the Orange County area. This place is about an hour outside of Palm Springs. The artist actually lives there along with a whole community of people in Slab City next door. There are actual loose hours of 6:30 am-5pm and noise discretion based on the time of day for the residents in the community here. I left in time to get there as the sun was rising, and it was a beautiful drive through the desert in the early cool morning with pink cotton candy clouds. You will first see a sign on a rock for Slab City and then will come to this sign shown above for Salvation Mountain. When you see this, you know you are close.

Cost

Salvation Mountain is the cost of salvation: FREE! This is the message and heart of the artist who made this installation. This art is by a man who didn’t believe and simply had a moment in the desert when he at 38 yers old encountered the love of God a quiet still voice in his heart and everything changed. He was filled with passion to share this message of love we were made for with the world as his life mission.

Things to do

  • Explore the art installation
  • Visit Slab City to see their other art installations, cafe, bar, and library (below)
  • See the Salton Sea & the abandoned town Bombay Beach area (below)

Salvation Mountain Art Installation

california salvation mountain
where is salvation mountain
salvation mountain desert

Slab City

This is an interesting culture and community that lives in the middle of nowhere in California desert. It is a community of snowbirds and squatters from across North America. The whole area has bunkers from World War 2 and lots of people living in different areas of the land. This is definitely an interesting artisan community that has all kinds of art installations set up and is known as one of the last free places on earth. There is a pretty eccentric interesting community of people that congregate, making it a great place to meet and mingle with people. You will hear some crazy stuff. This area is right outside of Niland, Ca, which is where most of the people get their mail held at the post office.

Welcome Information Kiosk

Right as you come into Slab City there is a helpful booth open 24 hours a day. There are lots of flyers and information about activities, art, and things to do in the city as well as events that are going on.

East Jesus

This is the other main art installation area besides Salvation Mountain in the Slab City area. There are lots of colorful sculptures and interesting creations out of junk and paint and other materials including a wooden pirate ship structure, tv wall, and glass bottle collection. The official website of the art gallery constantly under construction can be found here.

Travel n Pals Club Cafe

This is an interesting cafe that is in the tiny Slab City. It’s a great place to take a rest if you are out in the desert adventuring and need a drink or a break from the heat. The locals here are friendly and provide interesting conversation.

Hours: 8am-5pm daily

Slab City Library

There is a pretty large library collection of books in a covered structure with tons of old books and VHS tapes. It opens at 6 am and is a functioning legit library business which is pretty cool for the desert. Their official website is here.

Business Hours

Mon:6:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Tue:6:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Wed:6:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Thu:6:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Fri:6:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Sat:6:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Sun:6:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Coliseum

This is a cool graffiti artwork installation on the old metal historical bunker site from World War II. It’s one of the other main art installations to check out in the community and hang out.

The Range

This is a night club with strung up lights, live music, a stage, and drinks. It is a very interesting open desert nightly concert. There is lots of folk music and talented live musicians performing. This is a hopping place on a Saturday night. It gets rolling on Saturday night at dusk and is the best place to experience a wild desert evening off the grid.

Internet Cafe

This is a free service provided to Slab City residents and is run off donations. There is coffee, soda, and chips. There is great internet connection and free coffee but donations are appreciated and help keep the place running. Definitely check this place out.

Hours: 10am-6pm daily

Camping

The actual spots to camp and stay overnight in the central community that lives here are in the RV park campground area of the Slab City. Experience living off the grid for a night in the desert. Go out on a Saturday to experience the live music at The Range nightclub and come back with unbelievable stories.

Salton Sea

Salton Sea

The Salton Sea is an abandoned lakefront area with a concentration of salt so high that nothing can live in the lake. Most fish and living creatures cannot tolerate it, and you can see skeletal remains of fish spread out all over the banks of the lake, like sand that you walk over. A graveyard of bones for the desert fish. Weird. The place is eery, quiet, and abandoned. The sulfur smell in the air is strong and unpleasant.

Bombay Beach

Back in the day, this was the Palm Springs desert getaway of California. Now this is an abandoned tourist location that still has all the old signs up advertising staying in this beach town. There are beach ruins that are crazy to walk around and an active campground still with the reservegov.com to camp at if you so choose. I did not find this to be a good or fun camping area but a weird and wild day trip.

International Banana Museum

This is on the lakeshore of the Salton Sea and is a hilarious crazy corner of America visit. They have amazing banana ice cream and shakes at their cafe inside. This is apparently the world’s largest collection of any one fruit in modest Niland, CA outside of Indio, CA. There are all kinds of banana related products and a museum of over 22 thousand items. There is a banana souvenir shop. Read more about the museum here.

Hours: Friday-Monday 1-5 pm daily, Closed Tuesday through Thursday

This whole area makes for an epic desert road trip in California to explore an unmarked civilization living completely off the grid. Appreciating their art and hearing some different viewpoints is always interesting. There is adventure to be had in the Californian desert!

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