No Man's Land

Our weekend at Salvation Mountain was odd.

I want to tell you the whole story, but I'm sitting here with a million other things to do. But... let's see how far I get....

Justin and I were supposed to go up Friday with some friends to camp at the hot springs near Salvation Mountain. Which isn't a "campground" at all. It's just a spot in the middle of nowhere to set up your tent. There are no spots, and there are no other "campers" there. It's about 1 mile from Slab City and 2 miles from Niland - really feels like a no-mans-land.

But we weren't feeling well Friday so we told our friends that we would drive out Saturday morning instead.

So, our friends get to the hot springs around midnight on Friday. They are hanging around the campfire when around 2am this guy walks out of the dark bushes and sits down. His name is Grant. It was a little odd that he just came out of nowhere and sat down at their fire, but out there, you almost expect it. After a beer and a chat Grant leaves and says he is going to the hot springs.

The next morning a couple friends wake up to take a dip in the hot springs and they spot something in the water. There is an older gentleman in the water and they say to him, "Hey, there's a dead body in the water!" His reaction: "Well obviously you weren't invited to the party in south Vietnam, I've seen dead bodies and that ain't no dead body, that's a rubber body." - Seriously, he said that. Our friends can tell the story so much better.

Well, turns out it was a dead body. (sheriffs came, handled everything, questioned everyone, yadda yadda.) It was most likely a person that owned a car that was parked there when our friends showed up. And, it was not Grant, who had stopped by the campfire the night before. Although, Grant was IN the hot springs with this person, dead or alive the night before.

This really set an eerie tone. We got there early Saturday and joined our friends' spot at the springs. We spent the day at the Mountain with Leonard at Bobby D's - which almost burned down last week because of ARSON. WHAT IS GOING ON OUT IN NILAND!?

Saturday night there was a biker party at Slabs and we went to check it out for a bit. It was craziness as expected - huge bonfire, lots of guys yelling obscene things - not really my thing. We mainly stayed up near the stage to hear the music. Later, we went back to our camp and called it an early night because everyone was tired. Justin and I were in our tent getting settled when we hear a voice outside, "Hey, hey! You guys awake?"

Justin opens the tent door and there is a young guy on all fours, clutching sand in his hand. He says, "My name is Grant. I was here last night. I hear you guys are from LA, can I get a ride to LA tomorrow?"

"uh... uh..." I could clearly tell that Justin was tripping out on this guy. He told him that we probably didn't have room, and Grant said he would check in with us tomorrow... and off he disappeared back into the dark desert brush. That really, really creeped me out. I was just out there in the dark bush using the "restroom" - where was Grant, just hanging out out there?!

Ok, so Grant is probably innocent (the guy in the hot springs probably died on accident), but he is just one tripped out guy, and why was he trying to get to LA?

Niland is an interesting place people! I'm telling you, there is no place like it.

And I didn't even mention the mysterious-fast-moving -black-cloud in the sky that almost engulfed us... military testing grounds? ... I don't have time to get into that...

Near Salvation Mountain

Hanging out in the back of Bobby D's

Arson in Niland


The Mountain


...because I couldn't resist


Fe, Beast & Cam


in the glory of it all


events at the range