Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Salvation Mountain ~ Love is Everywhere

A couple of months ago Carrie and I talked about
going to Sedona for a weekend in September.
And then we changed our minds to Prescott.
And then we changed our minds to Salvation Mountain.
And added the beach.
 

When Carrie first started talking about going to Salvation Mountain I was all for it. I loved the look of the bright colors on the structure and the juxtapose feeling of the art work - a little here, a little there. The structure is a representation of artist Leonard Knight's passion: Bible scriptures and paint.

The mountain is constructed of bales of hay covered in local adobe mud, and then painted to represent the Sea of Galilee at the base, a red heart in the middle, and a cross on the top. It's funky cool and it was an adventure to get there.


This artwork is located in Niland, California, and to get there from Phoenix we headed toward Blythe and "turned left" {Carrie's words}. It's located in the lower Southern California desert, and the drive was really beautiful. At times we felt like we were driving on another planet! These sand dunes were so majestic, and it was worth the crazy road we were on - lots of up and down dips. Carrie was driving and she still got a little carsick. {You can see a short video I posted to Instagram here.}


There were date farms along the way, and orchards of fruit trees...

And there was this road:


It seemed like we were on this road for quite a while, but maybe it wasn't that bad now that I think about it. I was glad that Carrie had suggested we go "old school" and printed out directions from Google maps because we got a little turned around and somehow the paper directions worked better than our map app. {Or I'm just old school and can handle paper better than technology? Maybe.}
 
Salvation Mountain isn't really on the way to anything {that I know of} - you have to go there on purpose. It was fun to have the adventure of finding this place, and we were both pleasantly surprised when we arrived at our destination.


The photo above shows Carrie following the "yellow brick road." Said yellow brick road is in need of a bit of repair, I'm afraid. The next photo is of me at the top. See those crumbing steps on the yellow path? I sat on my rear end and scooted back down some steps, fearing they'd give way under my feet and I'd go sliding down.



 
The running theme is "God is Love" and "Love is Everywhere." There were also trucks and trailers scattered about the property that had been painted as well. A lot of hours in all this art, and I hope he did the majority of his work during the winter. Wow - it was HOT there in the middle of the desert at high noon. I may have made a comment about it being hot as h... and I was scolded by Carrie.
 

There was a section off to the side dedicated as an alter with all kinds of interesting things in there. If we had known this was there I would have totally brought a strawberry to leave! {Note to Carrie: remind me to bring strawberries on future road trips.}
 

When I look at the photos of us from that day, I remember how hot we were.

 
You can learn more about Salvation Mountain by visiting their website.
{Credit: I took some of the information for this blog post from their site.}
 
 
Really cool, right?
It was a lot of driving for us, but we really enjoyed every bit of the journey that day.
Salvation Mountain is a place you have to go to on purpose, and we thought it was worth the trek.
PS: Carrie and I were the only ones there and it was really nice to just take our time and get some fun photos without other tourists in the mix. As we were preparing to leave, three other cars pulled up. Perfect timing! :o)

16 comments:

Ruth said...

What an amazing place! Hoe come Carrie is wearing jeans in the heat??

Becky said...

Looks great! Glad you had a fun time :)

Susi said...

How neat! I'm sure a lot of people visit but it looks as if you were the only ones there?

Unknown said...

It was so much fun! I'm glad we went there and I'm glad you didn't fall off the breaking mountain.

scrappyjacky said...

It looks just totally amazing,Deb. Surely it wasn't hotter than Arizona!?

Karen said...

What an amazing place! I get a little jittery driving through desert like that. It always seems endless.

Margaret said...

This is amazing. I've never heard of the place, but it sure seems worth a visit. Glad you gals had a good time.

Anonymous said...

I have to say what everyone else is saying AMAZING! Glad you had such a good time with your girlie x

Beverly said...

I love art like this. We went to the Cadillac Ranch on our cross country trip. I can imagine the heat but then maybe it made you appreciate the ocean breeze even more :)

Jo said...

That looks like an amazing place and well worth taking a detour for! x

alexa said...

What an extraordinary place! Your photos are so intriguing ... And you take such lovely photos of yourself and Carrie :).

Irene said...

Looks very colorful. You and Carrie do fun stuff.

debs14 said...

Oh my goodness, I have never seen anything like this before, it's amazing! What great photos. I see this becoming a mini book sometime soon!

Maria Ontiveros said...

Thanks for the explanation. The instagram pictures were very confusing. I know you left a strawberry there in spirit. The photos with the branches are my favorite.
Rinda

Alison said...

What an amazing place...looks like you two had a blast as usual!
Alison xx

Lisa-Jane said...

What a crazy place?! It must have taken him so long. What a labour of love.

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