What is Salvation Mountain? — To whoever is not listening to the sea

What is Salvation Mountain? Many things — art, oddity, evangelism — but what we see most is extreme dedication to a single idea. You can read the full story here, but in a nutshell: Salvation Mountain is Leonard Knight’s way of sharing the sinner’s prayer with the world. The mountain we see today is actually the result of many failures… the first mountain collapsed after 4 years of continuous work and before that Knight spent 14 years sewing a balloon emblazoned with the prayer. The balloon never flew.

You see experimentation in the mountain as well. There is a side tree area which has enough “danger keep out” signs to indicate that it’s still a work in progress – and to make you a little wary of staying inside too long. You can also see the polish that comes with mastery. The main portion of the mountain has a very clear message and aesthetic. If you don’t know the sinner’s prayer before you arrive, you’ll know it when you leave.

Extreme dedication is interesting to most of us, perhaps because it’s inspiring, but also because it’s odd. It’s extreme! So it should not be surprising that Salvation Mountain is a tourist destination. However, we were a little surprised – and at times confused – by the diversity of people and things happening there.

ATVs were for rent,  right near the donation table.  As seen from the mountain top! — ATVs were for rent, right near the donation table. As seen from the mountain top!

We didn’t expect there to be ATVs for rent at the site. There are. (It is free to visit, and Mr. Knight is currently in a nursing home, so we imagine they, like all of us, need someway of keeping it going.) We didn’t expect people to be having a full-on party in the tree. They were. We did expect to see to lots of people with cameras – ourselves included – but did not expect to see wardrobe changes and staged backgrounds. (What are the chances that a bicycle and tricycle just happened to be there?)

There were people there who seemed really interested in looking at everything and people who stood at the edges as if getting closer would be dangerous somehow. To be fair when you climb up the mountain, following the yellow brick road, there are spots that are pretty narrow and slick.

These girls brought wardrobe changes for their photo shoot.

Salvation Mountain includes lots of other cars, trailers and trucks that have also been painted with scripture.

Rufus preferred to keep her distance from the mountain.

Salvation Mountain.  Yellow Brick Road. — Salvation Mountain. Yellow Brick Road.

All-in-all, the experience at the mountain left us scratching our heads. As did the entire surrounding area.

Slab City as seen from atop Salvation Mountain.

Salvation Mountain is located near the entrance of Slab City, which is essentially a squatter’s village on a former Marine training base. It’s the type of place where you can get away with building a mountain of adobe and paint for 30 some years without anyone really bothering you about it. The place has become a tourist attraction – we had to stop short several times to avoid hitting people jumping out of cars to get a picture with the “Welcome to Slab City – Last free place” sign. We had decided in advance that we weren’t going to visit Slab City proper, because we couldn’t find a very good reason to do so. Gawk at parked RVs? While there is definitely a sense of freedom of choice in the area – there is a library and lots of people were playing frisbee – you can’t help but think that some of the folks living in there may have wished they had some different choices.

After about 30 minutes, we had our fill of the mountain and its people – not to mention the relentless sun! – and left to head over to Anza-Borrego State Park. The trip there was also full of surprises. The desert landscape soon turned into farmlands – some green – some black. We and everyone else on Highway 86 were stopped at a border control checkpoint…we were 50 miles from the actual border with Mexico. The purpose of the stop was unclear as we were not required to show any proof of citizenship other than our skin color – or maybe it was the Vanagon that got us waved through? We then drove on to what has to be the most uneven road in America. It was literally like an amusement park ride. Then, suddenly, we were surrounded by ATVs and motorbikes – Vehicular Recreation Area! By the time we got to Anza-Borrego State Park, there was a dust storm brewing!

Whew! It was a little disorienting to consume such a diversity of experiences, people, weather and ideas in a single day. We didn’t agree or feel comfortable with all of them. But ended the day feeling really lucky to live in a place where they all exist...and ready to just sit quitely for a while. Luckily for us, there was an open place in the campground with hook-up! Which we pulled into just in time to enjoy the sunset.

The next day, we woke ready to visit with dragons and dinosaurs. But that's a story for another post.