Salton Sea (495x)

I've met very few people who are actually drawn to the Salton Sea as a place to visit/explore, but the area is culturally fascinating and frequently quite scenic.

The Sea seems to be popularly thought of as an ugly accident created by a breach in an irrigation project. The latter part of the story, that the lake is an irrigation accident, has always been hard to believe since the lake is so large (35 miles long, 15 miles wide). A little more exploration indicates that calling it an accident is somewhat of a misnomer. Yes, the current version was created in the early 1900's by a breach in an irrigation project that diverted the Colorado River for 2 years, but there is evidence that there have periodically been large bodies of water there since 700 AD. The Salton Sea Authority web page has a good, brief, background on the history of the Sea and its uses.

I guess the ugly part is a little easier to believe -- when I've been to it before, it's frequently been quite smelly and looked unhealthy. The Sea is completely landlocked with no place for water to exit (thus it is really a lake), and the Sea is replenished simply by runoff from surrounding agricultural fields. Thus it is very rich in nutrients, and in places can smell almost like an open sewer. But, according to various authorities, it is okay to swim in.

There have been efforts to develop the Sea as a resort or recreation area, though that seems to have not been able to sustain itself. One of the more interesting efforts is in the former North Shore Yacht Club (adjacent pictures) -- my understanding is that this failed due to having been flooded out when a hurricane in the 70's brought the sea level much higher than it currently is.