After lunch we drove out to the Salton Sea, which is one of the world’s largest inland seas and lowest spot on earth at –226 ft. below sea level.
Bombay Beach is located on the east shore of the Salton Sea and, like many communities along its shores, has had to contend with rising and falling water levels. A berm now protects the west end of the town but a portion of the town beyond the berm is either sunken under water or is half-buried in mud. Bombay Beach is very near to the San Andreas Fault.
As you can see from the pictures the devastation from floods and hurricanes is unbelievable.
Some of the houses away from the beach area have survived over the years and are pretty unique. Many people still live in the town.
Leaving the Salton Sea we headed to the mud pots and mud volcanoes. Not a well marked spot but we found it.
Double, double toil and trouble fire burning, and cauldron bubble. A few of us ended up with mud on our clothes from the bubbling.
Mud pots and mud volcanoes are geothermal features produced when water or gas is forced upward through the soil. Mud pots can assume a variety of forms, typically being depressions or enclosed basins containing gas seeps, bubbling water or mud. Mud pots can also be water-laden and appear as bubbling muddy water. Mud volcanoes, on the other hand, are elevated cone structures composed of accumulations of mud extruded from a hole. They range from finger-sized to several feet across, though the largest in the Salton Sea area are about 3 feet high.
Mud bath anyone? You first. A person can pay big money for a mud bath at a spa and here it’s free.
What a great day and all this within a hundred miles of our campsite. More adventures to come.
Bubbling mud pot Click on this link and it will take you to YouTube were I found a video of the mud pots.
1 comment:
Actually, it isn't the lowest poing in the world or even California. Badwater in Death Valley is 282 feet below sea level. Still, your story is interesting and entertaining.c
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