Decaying Ruins at Bombay Beach - April 30, 2011

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Decaying Ruins at Bombay Beach - April 30, 2011
Decaying Ruins at Bombay Beach - April 30, 2011

Flickr only allows 90 seconds of video, so please watch the full-length version on my YouTube channel: youtu.be/40itq6bue_A

The Salton Sea was originally expected to become the next Palm Springs -- but with a large lake to provide numerous water recreation activities: boating, fishing, swimming, water skiing, sailing, and more.

Around the Sea, yacht clubs, marinas, and hotels were built.

Master planned communities were slated. Water, sewer, and power lines were laid. Streets were paved and street signs installed.

People bought empty lots -- in hopes of the land rapidly increasing in value. After all, how could waterfront property NOT be a great investment?

Things were looking great for the Salton Sea...

...until the salinity of the water began rising to unnatural levels. The unnatural salt level of the water began killing the fish -- hundreds of thousands of dead fish began washing ashore.

In addition to the stench of the dead fish, algae blooms would choke the water, die off, and make the stench even worse.

In 1976, Hurricane Kathleen caused flooding and other damage to the area.

Since then, many buildings around the Sea have been abandoned and continue to decay.


Nowadays, the Sea is like a swimming pool without any functioning circulation pumps or filters. There is no fresh water flowing into the sea -- so the water remains stagnant.

Several ideas for saving the Salton Sea have been devised, but nobody has been able to secure sufficient funding to implement any restoration plans.

Despite all the decay seen here, there are still many residents that remain in the town of Bombay Beach. The locals are nice people. You can visit this area -- even at nighttime -- without fear of getting robbed or attacked.

Be sure to stay and check out the awesome sunsets here at Bombay Beach.

And finally, the stench that used to linger around the Sea is really NOT that bad these days. While one still sees some dead fish here and there, the massive fish die-offs haven't occurred in several years now.

If you venture further north along the east side of the Sea, you can check out the newly-renovated North Shore Beach & Yacht Club. It's now used as a museum and community center and is open to the public.

Visit www.saltonseamuseum.org for more information.

Music by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross

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Taken on: May 8, 2011
Tags: Everybody's photos tagged with salton salton Everybody's photos tagged with sea sea Everybody's photos tagged with decay decay more » Everybody's photos tagged with california california Everybody's photos tagged with desert desert Everybody's photos tagged with bombay bombay Everybody's photos tagged with beach beach Everybody's photos tagged with urban urban Everybody's photos tagged with exploration exploration Everybody's photos tagged with abandoned abandoned Everybody's photos tagged with disaster disaster Everybody's photos tagged with urbex urbex Everybody's photos tagged with urban exploration urban exploration « less
Sets appears in:   • Abandoned / Urban Exploration    • Salton Sea: Abandoned, camping, geology, Salvation Mountain, and more   
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