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Comment by xeromal | Hacker News Reader

The Salton Sea is such an interesting phenomena. An accidental diversion of the colorado river creates the largest lake in California (I think) and a community springs up around it. You have jet skiing, sun bathing, and other activities that local californians can partake in.

Agricultural runoff and a lack of an outlet slowly kills the artifical lake until its completely poisoned and millions of fish die and wash up on the shores spelling doom for the new community.

I've camped there several times and I recommend anyone near Socal to go check it out. It gives off very dystopian vibes but you can't help but awe and gawk while watching the locals like you're watching the last of humans in planet of the apes. It's wild.

I can't find the pic of missing kissing a fish bone but here a few pics I could scrounge up.

The jesus loves you mountain is outside the salton sea but I find it amazing.

https://imgur.com/a/39lJ047

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Accidental diversion is putting it mildly. In 1905, a very wet winter, a very heavy snow melt in the Rockies vastly increased the flow of water down the Colorado. This is pre-dam, mind you. The result of this heavy flow is that levees along the river as it flows to the Gulf of California were quickly eroded and finally breeched. Water flowed out this breech for 18 months before the they could be repaired and the flow stopped. Think about that for a second. The full flow of the Colorado running through the levee for 18 months. The result, of course, was the Salton Sea.

There is also Slab City. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slab_City,_California

One of the first pics in the imgur album is the Slab City library.

All the photos he posted were from Slab City. I was just there around October, truly a strange place

Sort of like... Burning Man with all the good parts left out

> Sort of like... Burning Man with all the good parts left out

Considering there's no playa dust and plenty of Burners with more infrastructure, I think you've got that a bit inverted.

Salton sea area is very dusty, one of the worst on the continent.

The dust I encountered there was child's play compared to the playa @ BRC, at least the Bombay Beach region I spent some time in. It wasn't even worse than the average desert dust levels I deal with regularly in the high desert around JT, which are a far cry from BRC playa.

There's just more moisture/humidity in general around the Salton Sea, that goes a long way towards keeping dust clumpy and on the ground.

BRC is next level misery in this department. I attended once in 2012 and left with my first ever sinus infection, that took a month to clear, and for at least a year afterwards every time I got a cold or otherwise congested (which newly became common) my snot would taste of playa dust. It's fucking awful. I'm convinced the dust in BRC dust storms shorten life expectancy of those breathing it.

If you're lucky enough to attend BRC after a recent good rain, then it's a much better situation. But that's moot; the same is true for Salton Sea or any desert region. The Salton Sea enjoys the advantage of a persistent local moisture reservoir, for now. The nearby agriculture responsible for the effluent sustaining the Salton Sea also humidifies the air.

I've always wondered if it was truly accidental.

Largest lake in California likely goes to the now dried up lake that encompassed most of the San Joaquin Valley.

Tulare Lake.

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