Salvation Mountain

[Matt Derrick]

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Name: Salvation Mountain.

Location: near the unofficial town of Slab City, CA.

History: Meet visionary artist Leonard Knight. While traveling across America, Knight found a secluded spot and decided to build a monument to Jesus. Fourteen years later, Salvation Mountain is a harlequin-colored, three-story religious monument made out of mud, old paint and adobe, surrounded by an encampment of brightly painted vehicles and elaborate adobe structures. Knight's mountain and message are now known internationally, and he gets daily visitors from around the world. In recent years, Knight has gained significant respect from the folk art community and his work is now on display in the Visionary Folk Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.

What's there: A big ass mountain of Jesus and bible quotes. I'm not the religious type (especially for Christianity) but this is pretty impressive.

Why we want to go: Every time I research this region this place keeps coming up. I've also seen Leonard Knight in a scene of the movie Into the Wild and he seemed pretty cool. Just another one of those fascinating roadside attractions everyone should see I guess.

More Info:

Salvation Mountain - Official Website - Niland, California
Mount Jesus // Current
Leonard Knight, creator of Salvation Mountain, folk art monument // Current

 

[Ghostie]

What about Slab City? Do you think that place would be neat to visit?

 

[Cardboard]

Slab City and salvation mountain are definitely one in the same. Don't let into the wild fool you, this place is nothing like the movie. Leonard is a really nice old guy, if not a bit crazy (OK, a lot crazy) I have been going to SLab city for years now, and definitely support STP showing up there. Leonard built salvation mountain after crashing his hot air balloon there and god telling him to build a mountain.
Other than that it is right next to the salto sea, easy enough to stay at slab city and make day trips in to visit bombay beach or wherever you may want. There are natural hotsprings to bathe in, and lots of nothing to do, which is amazing. Plus probably the clearest skies I have ever seen, the desert lights up at night just from the starlight.
It's right next to an active bombing range, so sometimes it seems like you are living in a warzone, machine guns and bombs going off throughout the day and night.
my friends and I (SPAZ, if searching for slab city on google images, chances are most of them are from us) are out there every new years, along with the crew from "Digihitch.com" who are some really cool, mostly older hitch hikers. might be a good time to schdule a stop.

 

[Ghostie]

I'll try to keep that in mind for New Years 2010. This place is definitely in my top 10 places I want to visit.

 

[connerR]

This place is pretty close to where I'm at right now. I was supposed to go out there with some friends a while back but it never worked out. I think I'll head out there on my own sometime soon, though.

 

[pillowtron]

it looks quite interesting, ill have to try to make a trip to it eventually