In my last post, which was all about adorable Owls, Bunnies, etc., I promised that there were a LOT of strange things to discover at the Salton Sea.
After I left the Sonny Bono National Wildlife Refuge, I headed down the rural roads to try to find the mudpots and volcanoes.
The volcanoes are near what used to be Red Hill Marina. There is no marina there now because the Salton Sea is slowly evaporating and shrinking. As I drove, I saw these really cool trees in the middle of the "desert".
Funnily (or sadly) enough, just 10 years ago, this area was covered in water as evidenced by the photo below which I found on BirdGuy.Net.
You can see in my photo, not only is there no water, but one of the trees has fallen over due to death from the drought.
I followed the roads in what turned out to be the correct direction until I came to an intersection thaat wasn't marked. There was a motor home parked off to one side and a beautiful golden dog ran to greet me. Soon the owner came over and he was so very nice and helpful. Rick and Blondie soon pointed me in the correct direction and off I headed.
Just as I was going down the road, an SUV with a couple professors and a student pulled up. I asked if they were going to the mud volcanoes and they offered for me to follow and hang out with them. I did fall behind a bit because 1) my car was not built for these bumpy dirt/mud roads, and 2) I had to stop for a couple photos!
I finally arrived and saw my first mud volcano! It looked straight out of a science project that got out of hand.
There were about 15 volcanoes in the field and they were from 3 to 8 feet high. the first grouping we came to were about 5 feet high and bubbling away.
Some of the volcanoes has vents on the sides as well as the top. This one was very wet and spitting muddy droplets!
It was a really beautiful day, but it was getting hot. And not just due to the heat from the volcano! It was the hottest week so far this year at the Salton Sea. I came from temps in the 70's to a high of 93!
I like this next photo, not only for the pretty sky, but also because you can really see the recent mud lava (mava?) flow on the side of the volcano.
Inside some of the lower volcanoes were mud "caverns" which were really bubbling away.
I thought this looked cool; it's a previous mud pot, but in the process of drying out.
Along the same lines, this fully dried mud flow from a previous eruption looked quite artistic to me.
Bubbles and steam
But, truly, probably the only way to get the full experience across to visitors of this blog is through video. So please enjoy my very amateurish attempt at an educational video!
On that note, I hopped back into my car and drank an entire bottle of COLD water! Then I proceeded down the bumpy road towards my next stop... Salvation Mountain and East Jesus.
But on my way I found more wonderful burrowing owls and also more fields filled with Long-billed Curlews and Egrets! Cattle egrets, this time.
This one flew away to watch me from safe distance! Sorry little guy!
This next photo is a nice illustration of their sharp talons!
Great Egrets, Cattle Egrets, and Long Billed Curlews
And the occasional Gull as well.
Then they, like me, flew away.
Off to look for salvation!
xoxo
