I had the opposite experience. I'm normally the kind of person who likes visiting unusual places, but I found nothing appealing about the Salton Sea. The smell was horrendous, there were flies and bees everywhere, and the rural decay wasn't really as impressive as in those artsy HDR photos. It's a horrible place that I vowed never to return to.

That’s what makes it so appealing to me. It was one of the most depressing places I’ve visited. Slab City is even worse. It blew away my expectations. I thought the documentaries and coverage of it were overblown, but no, that place is more fucked up than I ever imagined.

I think it depends on the time of year. For example, when I drove to Alaska in the spring, I found the wilderness beautiful, but the locals told me if I had come in the summer I would have been assaulted by swarms of giant mosquitos.

Sounds like the locals really liked you. :)

I don't think they were lying because I saw joke signs declaring the giant mosquito as the Alaska state bird

Not just mosquitoes, black flies and horse flies too. I hate fly bites personally. They hurt and they bleed sometimes and flies will pursue you relentlessly. Even if you go into water, they'll just sit and wait for you to resurface.

> there were flies and bees everywhere

That's a good thing

We sat down at a table to eat breakfast there during our road trip and within 10 minutes we were swarmed with a horde of disgusting flies. The entire shore was littered with bones from dead fish. The area looks quite ok from the confines of an air conditioned vehicle.

"Disgusting flies"? That's pretty specieist...

You're just passing through where they LIVE

I drove around Slab City so that I could see Salvation Mountain. It was... interesting.

Bombay Beach was scary and depressing.

The smell was fine when I was there but there are frequent massive fish die offs.

Something has to be done about it though. If it dries up (irrigation runoff feeds the lake but irrigation is getting more efficient causing less runoff) then the dry lake bed will blow over Palm Springs and other towns in the area. It's full of toxic dust now.

Migrating birds also use it as a stopover point because we have gotten rid of so many natural wetlands.

I love exploring around the Salton Sea because it feels like a post-apocalyptic version of the US. You're definitely not going for the aesthetics.

Isn't Slab City just a place that people go because they can squat there and no one cares?

It is romanticized among other things.

There are definitely addicts out there but I went with my family and met some nice people a few years ago. The art installation was interesting and the hippies running the library gave my kid a book. I wouldn't want to live out there for sure though.

There are a lot of artists, and they even have a "club" made up of old abandoned couches where they have occasional outdoor concerts. It's pretty wild.

Slab City is it's own thing. It was probably a nightmare because they are not trying to appeal to you... or anyone

I think it's the only semilegal squatting village in California