December 11, 2010

This week we visited a place just across the Saltin Sea, called Slab City. It seems unique - a place where you drive out to an unoccupied spot in the desert, put the RV in park, and stay for as long as you want. No electricity, no running water, no sewer dump. No streets, no stores, no police. It’s not a pretty place because some of the long-term residence have been very, very sloppy. But you can see the rudiments of a society. There is a radio station, hidden under a camouflage tarp (I don’t know why the tarp is needed or wanted).




















There is an open-air theater for entertainment, with old sofas lined up as seating.




















There is a church, and one area is full of clothes that are available for anyone who needs them.














And at the entrance is its claim to fame - Salvation Mountain. This 3-story "mountain" is classic folk-art, one man's life work. He's still working on it. There are supposed to be rooms or tunnels inside, but we didn't go inside it.














But mostly there are RVs and old buses in various stages of repair, or rather dis-repair. They are clustered around in small groups, or set off by themselves. And an awful lot are surrounded by trash.







































On the edges of the main area are sections where newer RVs are parked, and those areas are still neat and clean. These are probably short-timers - people who are staying here to save money on a short stopover, or people who want to experience this “off the grid” lifestyle.

Personally we found that just driving through Slab City was enough for us. We headed back to our clean RV park with tidy grass lawns, clean paved roads and full-hookups.