California’s Post-Apocalyptic Beach Town Is Now America’s Strangest Art Community

Bombay Beach, The Salton Sea

Welcome to Bombay Beach: a half-dead resort town on California’s accidental toxic sea. This Salton Sea holdout started as a rich people’s paradise and ended up as one of America’s most fascinating – and artistic – environmental disaster. Here’s why you need to see it at least once in your life.

It’s Really, Really Low

Bombay Beach is the lowest town in America, sitting 223 feet above sea level. Summer temperatures often climb above 120°F between June and September.

The low elevation means parts of the town flood during winter storms, so people have built walls using old tires and other materials to keep the water out.

Many houses have marks up to three feet high from past floods, and some buildings have been left empty, looking like they’re frozen in time from the 1950s.

Beach Made of Fish Bones and Salt

Walk along the shore, and you’ll see a crusty mix of tilapia bones (once abundant in the Salton Sea) and gypsum crust, ranging from 1 to 4 inches thick.

The beach smells like rotten eggs because of a gas that comes from dying algae in the water. Barnacles were introduced to the Salton Sea during World War II by seaplanes practicing military maneuvers. While you can’t swim here anymore, many photographers come to capture pictures of this strange landscape.

Salt Turns Old Things White

The Salton Sea is more than 50% saltier than the Pacific Ocean (4 million tons of dissolved salts entering annually). During summer months, humidity can reach around 90%. Metal objects react differently. Instead of rusting away, they get covered in white salt crystals.

This salt coating has turned old cars from the 1950s, aluminum boats, and metal playground equipment into white sculptures.

Houses Here Once Cost $100

Bombay Beach was once a thriving resort destination in the mid-20th century. Back in 2003, you could buy a house for just $100 during a special county sale. Artists looking for studio space and retirees wanting cheap homes quickly bought these properties.

Now these houses cost around $50,000 on average, which is still less than most places in California. Because the prices are low, artists have built their community here.

Streets Form a Perfect Square Grid

The whole town is laid out like a simple checkerboard with streets named 1st through 5th running east-west and avenues A through D running north-south, among other named streets.

All the streets meet at perfect right angles. Along the way, you’ll pass 295 lots with a mix of mobile homes where people live, empty buildings, and artwork scattered throughout the streets. The whole town takes up less than one square mile, making it one of the smallest towns in California.

Major Artistic Transformations

The town’s unique aesthetic (part post-apocalyptic wasteland, part open-air museum) has made it a magnet for creatives.

The Hermitage Museum, an abandoned trailer home-turned-gallery by underground artist Greg Haberny embraces chaos through shredded books, burned paintings, and eerie doll parts.

The Bombay Beach Biennale (since 2016), features outstanding installations like the giant, rotating wooden wheel on the beach. The event also projects movies at the drive-in theatre from 8 p.m. to midnight, bringing the installation to life.

Decade Old Movie Theatre

In the middle stands an old drive-in theater turned street art created by artists Stefan Ashkenazy, Sean Dale Taylor, and Arwen Byrd. The main screen still faces the desert sky and below cars from the 1950s and ’60s (models like a rusted Ford Galaxy, two Nash Metropolitans, and an AMC Pacer) sit in rows dusting away.

People call this art piece ‘The Drive-In That Time Forgot,’ and the old cars seem to be waiting for a movie that will never start.

“This is My Last Resort”

One of the most intriguing installations at Bombay Beach is an abandoned motel converted into a walk-in art piece, with walls covered in poetic graffiti.

The original ‘Last Resort’ neon sign remains, rusting and barely legible, while the windows boarded with plywood, still have peepholes cut into them. Inside, there’s a staged bedroom frozen in time, with a dusty rotary phone, an old suitcase half-packed, and a radio playing static.

There’s also a functioning phone booth with a direct “line to God” (or a mysterious stranger on the other end).

Salton Sea Art Triangle

30 minutes southeast sits Salvation Mountain. Artists and volunteers have continuously repainted this site since 1984. Created by Leonard Knight, it’s made from adobe, straw, and thousands of gallons of paint, a testament to one man’s artistic vision.

Pair your visit with East Jesus, an experimental, anarchist-style art community built entirely from salvaged materials. Besides its towering scrap metal octopus, you’ll come across a throne sculpted entirely of bones.

Unsurprisingly, There are Barely Any Amenities

Bombay Beach, a small community along the Salton Sea, lacks a local gas station. Residents and visitors must travel approximately 20 miles (32 kilometers) south to Niland for fuel.

This distance has led many locals to rely on golf carts for transportation within the town. There are only two establishments for food and supplies—the Ski Inn (known for burgers and beer) and a small convenience store.

The Town’s Barter System

Since 2015, people in Bombay Beach have kept track of what they trade with each other in a book at the local bar. You might trade a painting worth $5,000 for someone fixing your roof, or swap skills with your neighbors.The system now includes a website where people post what they need and what they can offer.