My mother and I are quite the adventurers, I can easily trace back my love for travels to her always taking me everywhere with her. My mom and I usually take 1-2 trips per year in which is just always a new adventure with little to no planning. My time in California had still been pretty new and I thought after getting a Jeep a day or an overnight camping trip would be fun. Mom, NY (the dog) and I hopped on the Jeep and started our over 5-hour trip.
Coming from Los Angeles to the Sea Salton Sea area I took the 1-10 East, for over 140 miles and then hit the CA-111 S. Warning: before you get to the CA-111 S make sure you fill your tank with gas. Gas stations around this route are nonexistent and traffic is low.
Less than 30 miles down the road on CA-111 S you will come across Bombay Beach.
Bombay Beach can be a place straight out of a scary movie. With dead fish all around the shoreline, strong fish odor and dried bones, this place will have you walking around fast. Its a quick stop!
Slab City
Just at the entrance of Slab City you will come across a tree with shoes hanging… to me, I the shoes were representing the leaves on the tree. I have no idea what the shoes on the tree represent, but the interpretation of art is always at ones own imagination. This #dessertgem is beautiful, artistic and inspirational site in the middle of the desert.
Drive around and get to see the community….
There is a hostel and enough desert for you to park and spent the night and experience the night sky in Slab City.
Salvation Mountain
Much of what I know about this place is the story of a man who simply moved to the middle of the desert and started painting. There is much art to this #dessertgem to explore and see. If you come here, don’t forget to donate to the artist and maintenance of this installation.
Somewhere during the sunset, we decided to get a hotel. Hotels were really far away, so the journey at night needs bright lights! My mother and I decided to keep going south towards Mexico for a hotel… I thought to myself maybe we should turn around, freaking out about a possible, not enough gas situation, and then I heard my mother freaking out about the lack of people in the desert, we found ourselves in a stressed and panic and we pulled over. After calming down and starting to get back on the road we realized that we were stuck on a lot of sand. We were in a sandy situation. An hour later the Jeep was able to pull us out and we found ourselves on camping grounds.
We realized it was best to just sleep in the car and we did.
It wasn’t until the next morning where we saw another #dessertgem
Imperial Sand Dunes
We found ourselves during the morning at the Imperial Sand Dunes. I have never seen sand dunes these big, I never even experience walking in a dessert with such high sand. This was an experience that you built up an appetite. Make sure you bring breakfast and spent the day here. My mother and I were starving we left after 2 hrs of sand dune fun!
The fun continues as you go back to Los Angeles, it is a long way back, but there is one more stop.
Vamoosenomad 