Wednesday, March 18, 2015

The Salton Sea of the Midwest Part I

The Salton Sea is 376 square miles of toxic lake surrounded by once booming resort towns and vacation homes. Of course the Salton Sea that most of us know, the decaying trailers baked by the sun and the desert heat, is really only a couple small areas with only a dozen or so trailers remaining. I would love to go back to the Salton Sea but it's not always easy to travel all the way across the country. Thankfully we have our own abandoned resort area here in the Midwest. It's similar to the Salton Sea minus the toxic lake, but with far more abandoned trailers. 

Kaylah and I, along with Jason, got an early start and made a one day road trip out of it. I had seen a handful of photos of this place online but once we got here I realized that it was so much more than I had expected. 







Just like the Salton Sea, it was incredible to see all that was left behind. Furniture, clothes, TVs. For the most part it appears as though people left planning on coming back, but never did. 




Tiny cottages lined this dirt road. They were like little hotel rooms. Each one with unique furniture and decor. Some were in near perfect condition aside from needing new paint, and others were practically just a pile of debris. 




Vines have broken through the ceiling.



The burned out remains of a couch. This one was so bad that just before I took this photo my foot went through the floor.




One of the coolest parts of this trailer park was the variety of colors. This watermelon themed trailer was one of my favorites.






It had been a long time since I had taken this many photos. Along with hundreds of digital photos, I also shot a few rolls of film that I'm looking forward to developing. 



Photos taken with a Canon 60D, using a Canon 20mm f/2.8, and Canon 10-22mm f/3.5 lens.

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