SALVATION MOUNTAIN + SLAB CITY
Over the last few years, Salton Sea roadtrips got yassified by Instagram culture by sending people out to Slab City to see and pose with Salvation Mountain. Myself included.
Salvation Mountain was a years long continuous art project for a man named Leonard Knight, as a dedication to God and a way to spread his message “God is Love”. It's honestly a refreshing message to hear since these days you mostly hear ways you can get yourself on the fast track to hell, so it’s nice you don’t get that here. It’s all the uplifting spiritual vibes that a lot of people understandably forget about while we got some churches out here picketing funerals.
Surrounding the mountain are dozens of abandoned painted cars and furniture. The mountain itself features a painted walking path to guide you to the top and back down and to get a closer look at the paintings Knight worked on daily for so long.
There are so many layers to this, and so many little coves and tunnels around back. An interaction that sticks out in my mind is sharing a quick conversation with a man on his bike, and him ending it abruptly with “Well, I’m sure I’ll see ya in the universe somewhere” and biking off into the abyss. And honestly? I loved everything about that.
Be sure to leave a donation too. Leonard Knight passed in 2014, and there are a dedicated group of people now trying to upkeep the project in the harsh desert conditions during an annual event. According to the site’s newest overlord, it can occasionally close to protect the paint.
The way it was described honestly sounded like a great fuckin time. There’s painting, there’s pizza, there’s quirky desert homes to host you, there are other fellow weirdos to gift you with endless content for anecdotes for years to come. We were also told about supper clubs that take place nearby and I’ve never wanted to just move to the middle of nowhere more than hearing about this community.
While I was chit-chatting away with the caretaker about her retirement and $300 treasure of a car, she gave us the reco to check out East Jesus, another outdoor art project just a bit further up the road.
East Jesus is a collection of the best the desert art aesthetic has to offer. Doll heads, bottles in cement, old cars, shit glued together that shouldn’t be, stained glass, a circle of folding chairs under a tent where the locals congregate. It’s the perfect place.
Just a stone’s throw away is the polar opposite: West Satan. Essentially, it’s the same shit. Only insider tip from the Salvation Mountain caretaker is the man who created West Satan broke apart from East Jesus and is a known predator in the community. And when I say community, I mean the local trailer parks of Slab City. Our caretaker friend told us that on nights she performs in the local cover band (!!!) she has seen him with her own eyes making moves on barely legal ladies. Of course, this is all desert tea and cannot be otherwise verified but I’m just here to report what I’ve been told. Assuming she was correct since, as she put it, she “sees the world from that stage”, we skipped over West Satan on the off-chance we’d be supporting the community creep.
Oh my GOD I’m just providing a small text break to bust up some of the actual insanity of this page. Like, I’m even getting whiplash from this experience just regurgitating my own photos.
When can I go back tho…
