The Salton Sea

The largest inland body of water in California - in the middle of the desert… This is the Salton Sea, and it is one of the strangest and coolest places in California.  This infamous lake was accidentally created in early 1900′s.  It was an engineering disaster - a failed attempt at bringing the Colorado river into California.  The project accidentally flooded this end of the Cochella Valley, which is below sea level, and created a 8,360 square mile inland lake.  Developers immediately wanted to take advantage of this strange creation.  Homes, malls, shops, and resorts popped up like mushrooms along the shore.  However, the water became saltier than the sea, killing millions of fish whose carcasses still dot the shoreline.  Residents left and the tourists never returned. Today, the Salton Sea is not visited by beach goers, but rather by explorers and photographers seeking its unique, post-apocalyptic atmosphere.  Ruins of civilization are scattered along the shoreline where the beach is made not of sand but from the skeletons of dead fish. 

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