A surreal morning in the desert

I was completely alone once I turned down Route 111. I never made it to wherever the brown and white signs pointing to the Salton Sea State Recreation Area take you. Instead, seeing the deep glow of water off to my right in the pre-dawn light, I cut down a frontage road onto Desert Beach Drive, pulling past a couple of empty buildings and parking on the sand near a derelict swing set.

I opened the car door. It smelled kind of like the Bay does, some days, only even fishier. The concentrated salinity of this inland sea, added to environmental nasties in the forms of agricultural runoff combine to kill off many of the fish species. It wasn't as awful as you might imagine: certainly not as bad as when my old landlord used to salt and dry his catch in the garage back in New City, NY. It was just there.

It was by no means silent. The persistent sound of the waves slapping against the beach and the cries of hundreds of birds prompted me to set my camera on video for a moment.  For a place that is supposed to be dead, it was very much alive.

Photos are up at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/70104978@N00/sets/72157623444869794/ for Salton Sea and http://www.flickr.com/photos/70104978@N00/sets/72157623320283961/ for Joshua Tree National Park