Salton Sea

I have been traveling in the SD/LA region and one of the most interesting thing is the area around Salton Sea and Imperial Valley. The picture of the area from NASA shuttle (source: Wikipedia ) is interesting:


The sea itself is freshwater lake created by man (!) during a disaster in 1905-1907, when the flow of the Colorado river was diverted due to high volumes of water in the river that ruptured the irrigation channel. The water from the river flew for 2 years and created Salton Sea, which is 227 feet bellow sea level. The sea exists till today because of the run-away water from farms that you can see on that picture. Google Maps picture looks also very impressive. The Salton Sea was originally recreational area, but increases saltiness and pollution of the water lead to the end of the boom. Many buildings are abandoned and waters smells. In fact, the shores are covered with dead fish in various stages of disintegration. What looks like sand is in fact huge number of small shells of unknown (to me) small animals.(Pictures will be eventually posted on Picasa).
Since the whole area is in fact desert, water from Colorado river makes it very fertile. The region is the main producer of lemons in the US and we saw large number of other citrus trees as well. On our way to the Salton Sea, we passed through Anza-Borrego Desert, which is bare but beautiful area covered with occasional cactus and ocotillo. This time of the year, the weather was acceptable and many flowers were blooming.