Salton City to Inspiration Point (28 miles, +1800/-600 feet).

Today was take two on my sea-to-sea hike. Only this time I cached more water and then spent the day at Salton Sea with Half Cookie before heading out.

What a weird place! We started out at the International Banana Museum, but it was closed (next time!). Then Bombay Beach with its found-art-meets-Mad-Max vibe. The state park visitor center was lovely, and both there and at two viewing locations in the Sonny Bono refuge we had the chance to do short hikes and see tons of birds.

We also visited Slab City and the famous Salvation Mountain, a giant folk art hill painted in technicolor homages to Christianity.

We made it back to Salton City right at sundown – a perfect way to start my hike.

We spent last night at Ray and Carol’s hotel and this morning we both walked the first mile of my hike together (yay!).

The sky was as lovely as last night.

But after a while, Half Cookie had to turn around, back to the hotel and to San Diego.

I grabbed 4 liters of water at a store near the highway and then made my way through the suburbs.

After that I made my way over to Salada Wash, passing many ATV trails and an actual flowing spring!

A military plane occasionally flew overhead, and I caught one in one of photos!

Salada Canyon got kind of dull with its deep sand and high featureless walls, so I climbed out and walked cross country whenever possible. It wasn’t always easy but the views above the rim of the wash were worth it!

I turned off Salada Wash to take a break at Seventeen Palms. It was awesome! I had the place to myself and I took a little nap after lunch.

The only downside were the worms I discovered in my dried apples. Unfortunately, the discovery came AFTER I had already eaten several (ewwww!)!

When some folks drove up I quickly packed up and headed up Seventeen Palms Wash, which runs parallel to Salada. It was easy enough to do some cross country to eventually get back to Salada and my water cache where the wash crosses the highway.

From there I did some cross country but it was way too rocky so I followed Smoke Tree Wash to Palo Verde Wash back to the main route on Short Wash.

I was racing the sun towards the end to get to Inspiration Point, and it was really tough because the jeeps make the track so sandy, but I made it!