Slab City, California

Chateau Relaxo in Slab City, CA.

The TV wall at East Jesus.

East Jesus

A car at East Jesus.

The bottle wall at East Jesus.

Salvation Mountain near Slab City.

A truck at Salvation Mountain.

The Range at Slab City, CA.

Slab City, CA

A trailer at Slab City, CA.

Salvation Mountain at the entrance to Slab City, CA.

Slab City is a pretty interesting place and since we are meandering east on our way to Austin for Christmas we decided to stop for a few days.

It’s am unregulated encampment on the site of an abandoned Marine barracks where 150 or so permanent residents and 1,000 or so folks in all manner of RV’s camp in the Sonoran Desert about 150 miles east of San Diego. The “Last Free Place in America” say the signs.

Slab City has fancy new RV’s, old abandoned RV’s that haven’t run in years, art, religion, live music, a 24 hour library, piles of trash, and many interesting characters. We have been here three nights and have barely scratched the surface of the place.

At the entrance to Slab City is Salvation Mountain where Leonard Knight spend about 35 years building an elaborate adobe, straw, and paint religious monument. Leonard passed away in 2014, but a foundation carries on his work. I had the pleasure of meeting him on a previous trip here in 2007.

The East Jesus art installation was an interesting stop too. It’s not religions but refers to East Jesus as in the middle of nowhere, which pretty well describes Slab City.