Bombay Beach - An Outdoor Art Display On The Saltan Sea
During our recent trip through California and Arizona, my wife and I took a detour to the eastern shore of the Salton Sea to see Bombay Beach. Situated on Th3e Saltan Sea, near Coachella, and about an hour’s drive from Palm Springs An old friend had suggested it as a must-visit spot for photography, and since it sits about 223 feet below sea level—making it one of the lowest communities on the continent—I was curious to see the landscape for myself.
The history of the place is wild. It was basically an accident, formed in 1905 when an irrigation canal breached, and by the '50s and '60s, it was being marketed as the "California Riviera." It was a thriving resort for boating and fishing until the lack of an outlet caused salinity and agricultural runoff to skyrocket. After the fish died off and the floods hit in the '70s, most people cleared out.
We rolled in during the middle of the day, which wasn't exactly ideal for the camera. The light was incredibly bright and harsh; I really missed those long, dramatic shadows you get during the golden hours of early morning or late evening.
The vibe there is hard to describe—it’s interesting, but in a heavy, lingeringly sad way. The community is messy and visibly run-down, and honestly, it doesn't seem like the healthiest environment to actually live in. There are all these creative art installations scattered around, but aside from the few people willing to make the long trek out into the desert to see them, they don't get much of an audience.
Despite the decay, something about the place stuck with me. I found myself thinking I’d actually like to create an installation of my own there one day. Time will tell if that happens.
I took all the photos in the gallery below to document the unique desert vibes and trippy place we encountered. While I would have loved the long shadows of golden hour for this landscape photography, capturing the art installations and the grit of the Salton Sea in the midday sun was a great exercise in content creation. It’s a stark, visual look at what remains of the California Riviera, and I hope these shots give you a clear sense of why this road trip stop was so compelling.
