Chris Dodkin
West Coast Correspondent
We should have known something was wrong - as we drove through a wash south of Joshua Tree, we came across the smashed TV sitting there in the sand.
It was so strange to find it there - a piece of 20th Century technology, reduced to scrap and dumped in a dried-up desert riverbed.
Then we heard the gunshots - distant, but definitely gunfire.
We jumped in the Land Rover and sped-away as quickly as we could, south towards the Salton Sea.
As we cleared the desert canyons, the sea appeared on the horizon - it stretched as far as the eye could see - 376 sq miles of water in the middle of a desert.
It looked out of place - so much water in such a huge arid landscape - it was as if the sea had suddenly appeared here - and indeed it had.
Before 1905, there was no Salton Sea - the area was just dry, and hot, and 226 ft (69 m) below sea level.
Then man came, and tried to mess with nature - They diverted water from the Colorado River into the Salton Sink for irrigation - but in 1905, heavy rainfall and snowmelt caused the Colorado River to swell, overrunning a set of headgates for the Alamo Canal.
The resulting flood carried the entire volume of the Colorado River into the Salton Sink - for two years!
A new sea was born.
We headed south, along the coastline of the new sea, a ribbon of tarmac next to a railroad - the sun shone off of the water, but it looked strange - instead of blue or green, it was brown and red - and it started to smell worse the further south we went.
30 miles on, we came across a sign - Bombay Beach - it sounded almost tropical - we turned right and headed off of the highway.
We had no idea what we were driving into...
The wind whipped across the arid landscape, kicking up dust devils in the afternoon heat - through the heat haze a number of structures began to materialize.
Civilization?
We pressed on, anxious to get to our destination.
As we came closer, it was clear that the structures were not in good shape - windows were shattered, and doors were hanging off their hinges. Corrugated sheet metal flapped and creaked in the dry wind, this place looked deserted.
We rounded a corner, and crested a berm, and the full horror was revealed.
We had stumbled into a zombie apocalypse...
Being Watched
Mother Nature Vs Capitalsim
Dreamer
Windows on destruction
Leaving the car, the smell was almost overpowering, waves of stench moved over the landscape with the unsettling aroma of rotting flesh.
The ground crunched beneath our feet, huge salt flats which stretched on for miles.
The devastation was absolute - not a living thing moved amongst the ruins.
I grabbed my camera and started to take pictures.
Just the oven remains
Blown apart
Strange tribal markings
Gutted carcass
Tagged
Walking through the derelict streets, I headed closer to the sea, and the source of the malodor - dead fish littered the dark beach - rotting in the noon sun.
The water was toxic - unable to drain, the sea had become more and more saline, and filled with chemicals from the surrounding agriculture - the water could no longer sustain life, and the fish were dying by the thousand.
There were still no people - and at the water's edge, I found a washed up remnant from the poor souls who had lived here.
Final escape from the office
It was too much to take in - we hurried back to the car, and put as many miles between us and the terrible scene as we could.
But the memories remain - haunting yet tempting.
Will will return one day to Bombay Beach.
It was so strange to find it there - a piece of 20th Century technology, reduced to scrap and dumped in a dried-up desert riverbed.
Then we heard the gunshots - distant, but definitely gunfire.
We jumped in the Land Rover and sped-away as quickly as we could, south towards the Salton Sea.
As we cleared the desert canyons, the sea appeared on the horizon - it stretched as far as the eye could see - 376 sq miles of water in the middle of a desert.
It looked out of place - so much water in such a huge arid landscape - it was as if the sea had suddenly appeared here - and indeed it had.
Before 1905, there was no Salton Sea - the area was just dry, and hot, and 226 ft (69 m) below sea level.
Then man came, and tried to mess with nature - They diverted water from the Colorado River into the Salton Sink for irrigation - but in 1905, heavy rainfall and snowmelt caused the Colorado River to swell, overrunning a set of headgates for the Alamo Canal.
The resulting flood carried the entire volume of the Colorado River into the Salton Sink - for two years!
A new sea was born.
We headed south, along the coastline of the new sea, a ribbon of tarmac next to a railroad - the sun shone off of the water, but it looked strange - instead of blue or green, it was brown and red - and it started to smell worse the further south we went.
30 miles on, we came across a sign - Bombay Beach - it sounded almost tropical - we turned right and headed off of the highway.
We had no idea what we were driving into...
The wind whipped across the arid landscape, kicking up dust devils in the afternoon heat - through the heat haze a number of structures began to materialize.
Civilization?
We pressed on, anxious to get to our destination.
As we came closer, it was clear that the structures were not in good shape - windows were shattered, and doors were hanging off their hinges. Corrugated sheet metal flapped and creaked in the dry wind, this place looked deserted.
We rounded a corner, and crested a berm, and the full horror was revealed.
We had stumbled into a zombie apocalypse...
Being Watched
Mother Nature Vs Capitalsim
Dreamer
Windows on destruction
Leaving the car, the smell was almost overpowering, waves of stench moved over the landscape with the unsettling aroma of rotting flesh.
The ground crunched beneath our feet, huge salt flats which stretched on for miles.
The devastation was absolute - not a living thing moved amongst the ruins.
I grabbed my camera and started to take pictures.
Just the oven remains
Blown apart
Strange tribal markings
Gutted carcass
Tagged
Walking through the derelict streets, I headed closer to the sea, and the source of the malodor - dead fish littered the dark beach - rotting in the noon sun.
The water was toxic - unable to drain, the sea had become more and more saline, and filled with chemicals from the surrounding agriculture - the water could no longer sustain life, and the fish were dying by the thousand.
There were still no people - and at the water's edge, I found a washed up remnant from the poor souls who had lived here.
Final escape from the office
It was too much to take in - we hurried back to the car, and put as many miles between us and the terrible scene as we could.
But the memories remain - haunting yet tempting.
Will will return one day to Bombay Beach.
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