by the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful Salton Sea....

             November 30, 2010....Salton Sea and Dos Palmos Oasis....

Our drive around the north end of the Salton Sea today was a surprise and very informative.  Did you know that it is 33 mi long, 47mi deep and 14 mi wide? That it supports 400 different varieties of birds in their migratory flight patterns? It is part of the Salton Sea Recreation Area, but currently has only one boat ramp at the Salton Sea Campground...that will change by the summer of 2011.

We accidently discovered a museum simply by deciding to turn onto a road that appeared to have access to the lakeshore. The North Shore Yacht and BeachClub – recently restored the main building and surrounding  public grounds and the foundation will be dredging the harbor and restoring the small marina and boat ramp in front of the building.  Back in the heydays of the 50’s and 60’s this place rocked with Hollywood stars, many who kept boats at the marina. Frank Sinatra had a house on the lake, which is now under water due to the 70’s flooding.

SaltonSeaMuseum.org

And then we drove down the street to Dos Palmos Oasis.... in the middle of the desert - the museum volunteer turned us onto this as a side trip about 2 miles from the museum down a gravel road. The State of CA maintains this small park and camping area. No off road vehicles are allowed, a 1/4 mi loop - easy stroll to the oasis.  We discovered that palm trees have underpants, road runners, lizards and egrets use the area and a restroom facility was available in the parking area.

Palm trees have "underwear"... this is what a partially-trimmed palm tree looks like on the left                      ....totally untrimmed on the right.

Until we saw these trees at the oasis we had no idea that the ones we were familiar with, were trimmed.

everyone into the pool - bottoms up!!!!

we are moving onto Yuma, however we will return to the Salton Sea area of CA to see those sights we missed this time. Thank you Oasis Palms RV Park for a great Thanksgiving dinner and for making our stay with you so enjoyable.

Adios...

Christine & Mike