Jan 3 ride

We started the day with a healthy breakfast here in Yuma. Dave & Romy left this morning, they are driving back to Calgary, Alberta. They really pitched in and helped make this a great weekend!

Uncle Hirshel's for me, Mal had a sampler, and Yvette had everything that was left in the kitchen :-)

Katie is doing much better, so she insisted that Jim go on the ride with us. Here we are in Holt, California. I needed coffee to fill my Butler mug, and everyone else needed a little something.

Niland, California. We stopped at this quick stop to get directions.

Looks interesting. We may have to come back up here for this!


I think we're on the right track. This looks like an old Indian trail marker.


The entrance to Salvation Mountain..What a place!


Rocks, wood, concrete, dirt and whatever else it takes to get the job done. A real work of art.


Painted rock

Tourist lady, and one of the several vehicles here. None appeared to operate.

Leonard worked 14 years on this section. Bales of hay, mud, trees, and all sorts of construction material went into building this part.

The main part of the mountain, which is still a work in progress. He's spent another 17 years on this part.

Some fine looking motorcycles.

This is Leonard. He's 79 years old, and has done all the work here by himself. His old truck broke down here 31 years ago, and he's been here ever since. He just wants everyone to love everybody.

This is Leonard's home. An old fire truck. Pretty basic living conditions. There is a hot springs a short distance from here, he gets cleaned up in it.


Everywhere you look there are meaningful figures. The buckets are all different colors of paint. He keeps the place looking fresh.

It's larger than it appears in these pictures. Just too much to post everything here.

An old motorcycle wheel on the entrance post. Everyone is welcome to go anywhere on the structure.

This was inside one of the sections


Probably nice and shady inside here when it's well over a hundred degrees in the summer. A resting place

Amazing how he put all these things together. It's all very structurally strong. This picture is from inside, looking straight up toward the ceiling.

Yvette inside the smaller part. He has windows everywhere to let light in, but they are hard to pick out unless you look for then closely.


This old tree helps hold up some of the structure.


He uses this big tractor for some of the heavy work.


Hard to say were some of this stuff came from. At one time, not too long after WW2, there were over 5,000 people living out here in the desert..no water or electricity.

Back of a bus

I don't know if Leonard ever lived in this. Maybe


Jim (wrong turn) was busy snapping up a lot of pictures with his very nice Christmas present from Katie!

The cement lake at the base of the mountain.


This is where he gets his junk mail :-)

Just another view

We had to do a little dirt riding to get here.

The Yellowbrick road is easy to find.

Starts near the bottom of the mountain and weaves it's way clear to the top. No safety features, but you're welcome to climb up if you want to.

This is the old truck Leonard was driving 31 years ago. It broke down, and he's never left. Before this he spent a lot of years building a huge hot air balloon, that was meant to spread the good news of God's love for us. The balloon rotted before he had a chance to fly it.

This young man was asking about a place to put up a small tent. Leonard told him, but said "there's enough naked people in the hot springs, you be sure to keep your shorts on!" then he added a few more words of advise :-)

The old fire truck that is his home now. There is a tank truck that comes around every day with water. We don't know about any other facilities..none in sight.

One of two scooters. Been a long time since either have run.

Nice little Yamaha. Tires are very low, and it's showing neglect. I think she's a goner.

Couple of Hippies we found up at the Mountain.

Some of the RV's that are parked here. I would estimate probably close to a thousand in the area

Every where you look people are living with no hook ups.

MANY unusual vehicles. Looks a little like a continuing, every day of the year, Burning Man.

This guy has been here 30 years, he's Mr. Fixit.

This pile of boards with a lot of old chairs and seats from vehicles is the gathering place. They have live entertain of different kinds at sunset. I would imagine they have a generator, but not sure.

Yard art.

This was a huge net over the whole camp. From a distance it looked like a regular structure.

Malachi, Yvette, Leonard, and Jim pose in front of the Mountain.

Mal was hungry, so we stopped at the Buckspot. A nice, clean, small cafe in Niland. We were on the way out of town.
The youngsters sharing a chili-cheese French Fry. Isn't this just sickening! :-)

Some customers we shared the Cafe with.

Back in Lynda Vista. Jim is helping Mal tie down both their bikes. They plan an early morning departure. Jim will leave here and go up to the hospital to spend the night with Katie.


The final tie down. It's been a wonderful weekend. In spite of Katie being in the hospital, Jim helping her, Pat leaving to help her 100 year old mother, Cold weather that caused DD and Pebbles to leave their bike in Phoenix.......it all turned out good. Good friends. Good food. Good rides. Interesting things to see and learn about. It don't bet much better than this!