Salvation Mountain

Leonard Knight arrived in the desert in 1984 intending to launch a hot air balloon carrying a religious message; the balloon failed, and he began building instead. The result is a hill about fifteen metres high and thirty across, made from adobe mixed with straw over a hay bale core, coated in an estimated hundred thousand gallons of donated latex paint in strong colours, with a cross on top and MUSEUM chambers of painted tree limbs and car parts beside it. A first version collapsed in 1989 from too much cement; he rebuilt using adobe. The state declared it toxic in 1994 on a lead paint reading, which further testing did not support, and it was later entered into the Congressional Record as a folk art site. Knight died in 2014 and volunteers maintain it.

What you actually see

• A painted adobe hill - about fifteen metres high, built from 1984.
• Chambers of painted branches and car parts - the museum structures beside it.
• A first version that collapsed - rebuilt after 1989 in adobe.
• Volunteer maintenance - continuing since Knight's death in 2014.

When to go

November to March; summer here exceeds forty-five degrees. An hour.

Honest expectations

Summer heat is dangerous - this is the lower Colorado desert. There are no facilities of any kind. The paint needs constant renewal and parts are always weathered. Nearby Slab City is a residential community, not an attraction.

Nearby

The Salton Sea is west; Slab City is immediately beyond.