Road Trip: Heading to Arizona through Southern California

Having completed my visit to Joshua Tree National Park, I needed to decide what to do next. I had considered meeting up with Scott in Death Valley, but our itineraries didn't really match up. Plus, I wanted to stop by and see Jeanne and Hal Elliott in Phoenix. So, I set my sights on another national monument that I had not visited: Organ Pipe Cactus, which is in Arizona on the border with Mexico. So, that dictated a southern route. First, I drove from my hotel in Yucca Valley through Joshua Tree one more time, crossing from the Mojave Desert ...

A lone tree

... to the Colorado Desert ...

Mountains as far as you can see

Then, I drove through a winding canyon (filled with warnings about flash floods -- I am not sure how you could get through in the rainy season) with golden cliffs.

Golden cliff

I was headed for the Salton Sea, about which I knew nothing ... it just looked interesting on the map. The route was through agricultural land -- palm trees, vineyards, strawberries.

The Salton Sea is a shallow rift lake in California's Imperial and Coachella valleys directly on the San Andreas Fault. It sits 234 ft. below sea level; its deepest point only 5 ft. higher than the lowest point of Death Valley. 

Salton Sea

The sea as it is now, which is fed by the New, Whitewater and Alamo rivers, as well as agricultural runoff, drainage systems and creeks, was accidentally created by engineers of the California Development Company in 1905 when they dug irrigation canals to increase water flow for farming. To prevent silt buildup, they dug a cut in the bank of the Colorado River. The outflow overwhelmed the engineered canal and the river flowed into the Salton Basin for two years, filling the historic dry lake bed and creating the modern sea. Although it varies with fluctuations in runoff and rainfall, the Salton Sea averages 15 miles by 35 miles, making it the largest lake in California. 

A hazy day

The lake's salinity, about 54 g/L, is greater than the Pacific Ocean, but less than the Great Salt Lake. Due to the high salinity, very few fish can tolerate living in the Salton Sea. Tilapia live in the lake and other freshwater fish live in the rivers and canals that feed it. The Salton Sea has one of the "most diverse and significant" populations of bird life in the continental United States, rivaled only by Big Bend National Park in Texas. It supports 30 percent of the remaining population of the American white pelican.

American White Pelican

Much of the shore is state park and it appears to be a haven for "snowbirds" and RVers.

Campground

Interestingly, Sonny Bono, when he was a California Congressman, was active in preserving the area. The Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge is named after him.

After my Salton Sea drive-by, I reconnected with the interstate (I-8) and headed to Arizona. One of the most interesting rest stops (a pit toilet in a rather nasty-looking area in the center median) was in the middle of California's Imperial Sand Dunes (also known as the Algodones Dunes). This field is approximately 45 miles long by 6 miles wide and is the largest sand dunes open to off-highway vehicle use in the United States. You can imagine what the traffic was like in the area.

Dunes

Trip date: March 7-14, 2015