Salton Sea Smell?

[luvmywestie]

We have been considering a trip to the Salton Sea area but keep hearing that the smell there is horrible. I thought I would check with the MOCers that have traveled that area and see if anyone has been there recently that could give any information whether the sea is still stinky. My internet search shows complaints from 2010 but I don't see anything recent.

[ols1932]

I don't remember there being an odor that was stinky. But then, I can park near a dairy farm and not have any problem with it. I think it's a personal thing.

Orv

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

IF there is a fish die off, you will have a smell, it will not be particularly favorable.

We stayed there last year about 2 weeks after the Quartzsite Rally for 3 or 4 nights, at the state park, at the first campground while driving south, believe it is the main campground, it is NOT a boondocking campground, rather it had full hookups with 50 AMP.

The smell was nasty if you went close to the water's edge, but the campsites were far enough away from the water that the smell was barely noticeable. They told us the die off was from cooler temps they had that year. There was no walking on the beach tho.

All that said, I still found it to be a unique and somehow haunting experience. Be sure to stop at Niland and go to the boondocking slabs and Salvation Mountain, which had to be my most favorite part of our stay in the area. I did blog on the area and the experience, the blogs were posted the end of February 2011 and the first of March 2011. Blog address in my sig line. Go to blog, try the search engine in the right hand column, type in Salvation or Salton, see what pops up.

Suggest calling the state park and point blank asking them if they have had a fish die off.

I would not have missed it, left a lasting memory.

[HamRad]

We just stayed at the Fountain of Youth Spa and RV Resort located about 10 miles north of Niland, CA. This is located on the east side of the Salton Sea. We did not notice any smell whatsoever from the Sea. But we have heard the same stories. I think you should just go ahead and give it a try. Plan to stay just a night or two and if it is good then you can stay longer. If bad then you can go ahead and leave. But give it a go. We loved our visit at FoY and plan to go back sometime. Good luck. Dennis

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

Dennis, while we were there, we drove to the Fountain, in fact, I believe we drove through the campground you stayed in, VERY NICE STUFF.

We did not smell the fish die off there either, that was plenty far away from the shore. Like I mentioned, we could barely smell it at the campsite, it was only down close to the water that the trouble was obvious, lots of carcasses and of course, the odor.

There is plenty to do in the area to keep busy without walking the shore of the Salton Sea.

[Art-n-Marge]

We've stayed in Niland for several days at FoY and did not smell anything (IIRC, it may have been November or February timeframe). We then went driving around Salton Sea on one of the days and there were some spots where the smell was very intense but we had read to expect it so we tried to stop at the not so smelly parts. I don't think it was during a fish die off and it was especially noticeable when we were on the SSW, SW and WSW direction sides of the lake.

Hopefully you can contact someone like what was suggested above and get some info.

[luvmywestie]

Thank you all so much for answering back!! I think we will drive up there and look around on a day trip, then decide if we want to spend a few days, or longer. Seems like it would be worth investigating and I love the idea of the hot springs!

I sure appreciate you sharing your experiences!

[Gorgeguy]

Just before Quartsite, we stayed at Oasis Palms in Thermal for a week (only $111 for a week with Passport America). No bad smell and plenty of fresh lemons, oranges and grapefruit for the picking around the campground.

[rldriver]

You can also try Borrago Springs State Park out in the desert west of Salton Sea. We really enjoyed it there. Don't believe that you can't get a 40' RV into there. Lots of room for big rigs, call the park direct for information.