Salton Sea and Snowbirds

I have heard the term Snowbirds growing up in Toronto and always thought it referred to Canadians that head down to Florida during the winter months to enjoy the warmer weather. Well I have found out another location that west coast Canadians flock to and that is the Fountain of Youth Spa near the Salton Sea. After coming across this You Tube Video about the Salton Sea I decided we had to visit. At 220ft below sea level, the Salton Sea was created by accident and is one of the largest inland seas in the world. It has a salinity level 30% greater than any ocean and virtually all fish species other than the Tilapia can't tolerate the high salt content. The Fountain of Youth Spa was referred to me by a fellow Vanagon e-mail list member. It was very close to the Salton Sea and certainly didn't disappoint.

Still trying to take full advantage of my wife's maternity leave - we packed up the Vanagon and were on our way. Here's Brooke and mom all safe and ready to start another adventure!

I have found that we now need to double the estimated travel time that my iPhone maps estimates when we take into account the needed feeding/diaper change stops as well as the slower Vanagon travel speeds. With that said our 3 1/2 hour journey took around 6 hours and we arrived at the Fountain of Youth Spa. The first thing I noticed is the immense size of the RV resort that is seemingly in the middle of nowhere. With over 800 RV sites, we took up camp in one of their dry camping spots next to one of what I would soon discover to be many Canadians residing there.
Here we are all set up on our first night with a view of the Salton sea in the distance in front as well as the beautiful mountains in the back.

Fountain of Youth Spa was more of a resort than an RV park with amazing amenities, clean facilities and some of the friendliest people we have come across. With my autoclub membership our nightly rate was only $17 but much less expensive rates were available depending on length of stay. Here are some pictures showing just a portion of all the amenities.
The largest horseshoe pit I have ever seen:

Amazing pools and spas:

With many other features and activities, I can see why so many people flock to this incredible location and stay for months at a time.

Our very friendly neighbor from BC invited us over for a hot dog dinner on our last evening so I decided to try out our new 300 light LED light strip.

Brooke was of course loving every moment of the trip.

After two days of fun it was time to visit Bombay beach. In the 1950's and 60's this was a thriving resort where guests swam, water-skied and golfed during the day, then headed to the yacht club. Now, Bombay Beach is a bleached, rusted, abandoned wasteland with smells of salt, petrol and rotting fish. The shores, once lined with sunbathers, are covered in green sludge and desiccated fish carcasses. It's an apocalyptic landscape but amazing to witness.

This isn't sand, but fish bones that crunched under every step

An absolutely surreal experience and I found it incredible that almost 300 people still live here as residents.

Being a Vanagon lover, I discovered a couple that decided to live a nomadic lifestyle by working and living in their Westfalia. A benefit of following this group was discovering a place called Salvation Mountain. Please check out their website for more info about their travels Where is my office now

Made from thousands of gallons of paint, it encompasses numerous murals and areas painted with Bible verses. Created by a man named Leonard Knight, it took over 25 years and needs constant maintenance.

Our Vanagon ran great during the entire trip and was another showcase of our ability to camp "off the grid". We will remember this journey fondly as it was another amazing adventure that has shown us the incredible ways people live and survive.

Buses By the Bridge!

Timing is everything. With my wife on maternity leave, it has opened up a new life as well as enabled us to enjoy a "normal" weekend. It is also an opportunity for us to attend our first official VW camping weekend. Our initial concerns of bringing a newborn along were somewhat eased after our practice run at home and we were able to leave on Wednesday to meet up with a group at Amboy Crater. Here are some shots of us on our first leg of the journey.

Brooke all safe and sound enjoying the views.

And my wife asleep.

Located in the Mojave desert right off the historical US Route 66, Amboy Crater is an extinct cinder cone type of volcano rising 250 feet above a 27 sq mi lava field.

Knowing that cruising to these events can be just as fun, I was thankful to come across this group I heard about on The Samba which was unofficially called Buses By the Crater.

It was a chilly 40ish degrees overnight but we had the pop-top up with the windows cracked open and our Mr Buddy heater on low which kept us nice and warm. After a quick breakfast, we were off to our next stop - Lake Havasu:

Arriving early to the event definitely had it's advantages as the good spots fill up quickly. I managed to grab a perfect spot right be the lake, on the grass with some other "Amboy Crater" friends.

We found that the Baby Bjorn put Brooke to sleep quickly so we could walk around to explore the sights.

After a tiring day it was time to sleep early so we could enjoy the first full day of Buses By the Bridge! Here is the view outside our back window right when we awoke at around 7am.

In fact, we were greeted every morning to the incredible sights of the balloon festival that was very close by.

 

I believe the final tally was over 400 registered vehicles making it the biggest event ever - here are some shots of just a few of the amazing rides we encountered.

During the day we were able to play some Frisbee while Brooke watched and cheered us on from her comfy spot in the back.

It was also a nice star filled night with a huge full moon.



This was definitely an experience we will not soon forget. It was not only incredibly fun but had some of the friendliest people anyone could meet and everyone had an interesting story to share. The passion and individuality of everyone's vehicle is what makes our vehicles so unique and is the reason we will try our best to make this an annual event.