Before a journey, I use my journal to put the destination into existence.

On my winter break, I will be in the desert and one of the mystic locations that I will be visiting is the Salton Sea.

The Salton Sea is an accidental inland salt sea, the second largest in the United States after the Great Salt Lake in Utah. The “sea” is accidental because on a dam  and canal breaches in 19o5. The over flooded waters of the Colorado River filled into the Salton Sink to create the largest lake in California.

For a time this lake was a recreation destination with marinas, yacht clubs and hotels, but the lake has been receding and the waters, more polluted, leaving ghost towns ringing it’s shores.

The sea is currently a refuge for thousands of birds, including 400 different species and it was these birds that draws me an hour and a half south from Joshua Tree.