Having seen the spring wild flowers and having a nice lunch at the pet friendly patio of the Red Ocotillo we decided there was plenty of serenity left so we decided to take a chance on depression and marched onward beyond "The Badlands" to the Salton Sea.
Born by accident between 1905 and 1907 this place is fascinating. The salinity is very high and quite honestly the place has a rather "not so nice" aroma. I guess at one time it was to be the playground of LA but like so many other things LA embraces this was a disaster waiting to happen, at least as far as recreational water use is concerned. We saw several new home construction sites in various stages of completion. I suspect, based upon the signs, that many are now the proud unfinished possessions of the lending institutions that backed the developers. Still if one didn't mind living in this area I'm reasonably certain that one could negotiate a rather sweet deal on a new home with the lender.
The community is now largely hispanic and could only be described as post depression. Depressed is how I felt after we left. I kind of thought of the Salton Sea as representative of a non recovering alcoholic approaching the bottom just after the wind stopped blowing...eh ma ???
Just to the west of the freeway as you proceed north around Salton Sea is a Casino. It is very clean, very nice & should offer decent dining...however we elected to scoot back to good ol' Poway.
