Over the weekend, Scott and I drove out to Palm Springs with
a few friends. On Saturday, ready
for adventure after a night of fancy drinks and swimming in the darkness, we
took a day trip to Salvation Mountain, a Technicolor pile of clay, rock, and
hay that is Leonard Knight’s monument to his simple message of “god is love”.
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| Salvation Mountain |
I’d never heard or seen anything about this bizarre desert
landmark before, and now it’s all I can think about. To get to Niland,
California, we drove on a one-lane highway that ran right by the Salton Sea,
and through a handful of tiny towns where people moved in slow motion. The heat
and the bright sunlight lit up abandoned houses and skeletons of old bars and
hotels, lending a weird, post-apocalyptic feel to the afternoon.
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| Leonard's truck |
We pulled into
the makeshift parking lot and stumbled through the mess of paint cans and old,
gutted vehicles to reach the candy colored hill with religious messages and
crawling stripes of paint. Once we reached the top, we circled back around and wandered through the makeshift museum.
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| interior of one room in the museum |
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| found in a trailer on the site |
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| our view from below |
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| landscape |
Once we got back within reach of the internet, we watched
some video clips of Leonard, who wasn’t at the mountain. After living out of
his truck since the seventies, he was recently taken to a nursing care facility.
Watching him speak, wide-eyed, about his tribute to his faith was
heartbreaking.
My favorite clip of Leonard is from Into the Wild, a 2007 film by Sean Penn. It's just a couple of minutes, but it captures the feeling surrounding this place. See it
here.
(all photos by Scott and myself)
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