Oh Lord take me to Salvation Mountain
I pulled into the dirt parking lot which seemed to be an eclectic mix of heavily graffitied cars and dusty trailers, trucks and sofas. I had arrived at Salvation Mountain, all 50 feet high and 150 feet wide of it. There were no other mountains around, in fact everything around the surrounding desert was flat and rocky. This was not a mirage in the middle of the desert but a mountain built by one man and made entirely of paint and adobe. His mission was to spread the word that “God is Love”. Many people in the world have the same mission but the man that built this strange and beautiful shrine has done something more extraordinary than anyone before.
The Man
Leonard Knight was born in 1931 in Vermont and moved to San Diego in 1956. A devout Christian he had a dream to build a hot air balloon where he would advertise the Lord’s Prayer to spread the word. Over many years he stitched together a huge balloon but after many failed attempts to inflate it the balloon began to rot and fall apart. On to Plan B.
Many people became introduced to Leonard Knight when he appeared in the hit movie “Into the Wild”. You can sense his passion for his creation in the movie.
In 1984 Leonard Knight traveled to the little town of Slab City and liked the weather so much he decided to stay. Since his balloon attempt failed he decided to build a small monument in the desert with a single bag of cement. One thing lead to another and his monument started to get bigger and bigger each day. For four years he built what started to become a mountain. Then one day the ground underneath the mountain was so unstable that it all came falling down. On the Plan C.
Larry Yust, Photographer took this picture of the original mountain before and after it crumbled. (Courtesy of SalvationMountain.com)
Leonard did not give up, rather changed the material that he was using to native adobe clay and straw. As he built up the mountain be began coating it with paint to keep the clay from eroding. Leonard had found the secret mix that would keep Salvation Mountain together. The more he painted, the stronger the mountain became and the more people that started to come. Leonard had built something infinitely more valuable than a hot air balloon. He had built a mountain in the desert.
Leonard, now 80 years old is in a care facility back in San Diego so he does not care for the mountain anymore. Rather volunteers keep the mountain up which to this day continues to grow and attract people. The mountain is a testament to the tenacity of one man to build something in spite of failure after failure.
You can check out a selection of my pictures from Salvation Mountain at this gallery link – Gallery of Salvation Mountain in Niland California.
Builder Bob or Bob the Builder
A dusty man greeted me at the mountain. Deeply tanned he told me his name was Bob but I could call him Builder Bob because that is what he did. He takes care of the mountain now that Leonard is gone.
He lives in an aluminum Airstream right next to the mountain. On the day I was there he was taking in a band of roving musicians called “Cadaver” from Germany to stay with him and help maintain the mountain.
Bob the Builder smiled as I gave him a $20 donation and said that it would go towards paint on the mountain. In some ways I was quite thrilled to know that I would somehow be responsible for helping to build up the mountain. But part of me questions how long the mountain would actually remain standing. I mean Bob the Builder seemed to be doing an admiral job of keeping it up but the real passion behind the mountain – Leonard Knight – was aging and now in a nursing home. Would the mountain still be here in 50 years? I am not sure of the answer. Part of me doubts it.
The Message
The message of the mountain is Love. That much is clear because that word appears hundreds of times – painted into everywhere you look. The other message is repentance. That word appears everywhere too. There are old trucks that are painted and they are scattered everywhere around the mountain. You can go in some. The trucks wheels are buried in the sand. They have not moved for years.
If you have ever watched the TV Show Breaking Bad and you love it then you might want to head out to this area. The dusty desert roads and derelict scenes are reminiscent of Walter White and his Motor Home Meth Labs. This truck in particular reminded me of something you would have seen in the show. This motor home was actually working and moving. Someone lives in it. I am not sure who but it was cool.
The Graveyard for Old Motor Homes
I love Airstreams. There are a few here. They look they have not been moved in many years. They are painted with hundreds of pounds of paint anyway, I am sure that it would crack off and fall if they ever tried to move it. You can take a walk around these old cars and motor homes and just read the painted signs for hours. There are so many interesting messages everywhere.
The Tunnels
In addition to the mountain, there are tunnels that Leonard Knight built. These underground cave like structures are cool, brightly colored places where you can get out of the heat and see shrines made out of trash, old cards and just about everything you can imagine.
I went twice.
I arrived at Salvation Mountain at 1 pm. I stayed for an hour or two taking pictures, talking to Builder Bob and just getting the know the place. I wanted to be there at sunset so I decided to tour the dusty roads and visit Slab City down the road so I could come back later and take sunset shots. I was glad I did because the place literally cleared out at sunset and I had the entire mountain to myself. It was the best part of the day and no one was around. It was perfect.
Mules. Transportation for Builder Bob and his band of helpers.
A beautiful glowing desert sunset against the scenes of Salvation Mountain.
Leonard Knights makeshift cross, glowing against the sunset.
Photographing Salvation Mountain (Google Map It)
With Salton Sea, Slab City, Bombay Beach, North Shore and so many cool areas to photograph, I recommend a full day in the area. If you are driving from San Diego it is approximately 2.5 hours to get out to Salvation Mountain. You can leave San Diego at 9am and head back after sunset at about 7 to 8pm. The best time of day to photograph this area is sunset. Surprisingly most people don’t wait for sunset and miss the most spectacular views of the day. Trust me you want to stay here until the sun goes down to get your best shots.
Easter Sunday was a Fun Day
Everybunny came to the Easter Brunch at the San Diego Yacht Club. There were lots of high flyers at the Yacht Club and then there was the McKenna Clan. There was Roast Beef, Shrimp, Filet Mignon, Expensive Hams but all the McKenna’s pretty much just piled up their plates with bacon and then went back and got more bacon. What a day. Check out all of the images I was able to take in this gallery. Ollie and Geno were the only ones hamming it up so that’s why they are in almost all of the pictures. Gallery for Easter Sunday 2013
Tu made cupcakes. She had all of the bunnies lined up in the refrigerator chilling out until the party started. The bunnies were standing at attention.
Frankie and James had cute little bow tie outfits on. Frankie saw my camera and he went oh no, here we go again with that thing and immediately bust out crying.
Geno and Ollie were looking dapper dressed to the nines for Easter Sunday. Geno even wore a tie!
Geno and Ollie are good friends and had a great time together. They are almost the same age and they like doing a lot of the same things.
Did you see that Oliver is wearing a cast. A bunch of people signed it. Darth Vader even signed it. Cool.
Oliver was so studious. This is not pretend. He is doing homework in the Library so that he can get all A’s on his report cards.
Look who was there cute as a button. It’s the boy with the rosy cheeks and button nose that never stops laughing and smiling. Cute boy.
And Frankie and James had fun in the end too. Look at these guys and their shades! What a couple of cool kiddos.
Torrey Pines GliderPort is a Superb Place for Photos
Torrey Pines GliderPort. It is a National Landmark of Soaring and is one of the best hang gliding places in the country. Basically people have to make a leap of faith and jump off the cliff with their wings. It is quite scary but it is another beautiful place in La Jolla.
I went up there today to see how it was and it was beautiful. I would recommend trying this place at sunset or early morning. Here is how you get there. (Google Map It)
There are lots of cones around and they get pretty mad if you cross into the area where they are taking off and landing. You can get photos by walking around and down the cliffs a bit. There are some good shots but the ones I like best were with the rolling hills and the colorful canopies of the hang gliders.
The shots taken from below can be pretty awesome too.
If you hike down the very dangerous cliffs you can get to Blacks Beach. 2 people died last year trying to hike down these cliffs and scores more had to be rescued. It’s good to stay on the beaten path here.
How many orphans in Vietnam? There are 1.5 Million.
I read that there are 1.5 million orphans in Vietnam. That is very sad and what makes it particularly sad is that the Vietnamese Government and the US Government have made it particularly hard for people here to adopt these orphans.
We visited several orphanages in Vietnam. In Vietnam the orphanages are either run by the Church or by the Government. In either case each orphanage we visited relied heavily on donations of food, clothing, toys and other things for the orphans. Some of the orphanages in the cities such as Saigon were frequently visited and the kids seemed happy. But unfortunately most of the orphanages in the more remote locations of Vietnam were hardly visited at all the kids were in desperate need of visits, toys and food.
If you are planning a trip to Vietnam it is a good idea to visit the kids in the more rural parts of Vietnam because it is them that need your help the most. Here is a gallery of some of my pictures of the Orphans of Vietnam – Full Gallery of The Orphans of Vietnam.
Vinh Long Orphanage (Facebook Site)
This orphanage was about 2 hours south of Saigon and the kids and babies were housed in an old prison. They were behind the cages but safe. When we entered the building, they screamed in delight. Imagine the feeling of that? It was wonderful and heartbreaking all at the same time.
The kids and babies were cute but they needed more help. They did not have enough people in the orphanage to take care of all the babies and kids. We were happy to donate food, clothing, toys and even threw the kids a Christmas party which they thoroughly enjoyed. If you can visit the website above. My girlfriend and I run the webpage and actively post new pictures of the orphans and how they are doing.
Lang Tre Orphanage
The second orphanage we visited was very remote. From Vinh Long it took us about 6 hours by car to get there. The orphanage was run by monks but the kids were very poor but happy in this orphanage. What made it sad was that the orphanage was also home to mentally disabled men and woman.
Saigon Orphanage
The third and final orphanage that we visited was the best kept of all of the orphanages. The kids were so well cared for and so cute. They had at least 30 people visiting them when we got to the room. Since I had a camera and write about the orphans in Vietnam they let me come into the special room where all of the babies were kept. There were babies in this orphanage that were just days old. And all of the babies slept on the floor.
If you would like more information about orphanages in Vietnam or how you can help you can send me an email to [email protected] and I will do my best to get you any information that you need.
Scripps Pier La Jolla is great location for Surf Gear Photography
I was down at Scripps Pier again working on a Time Lapse project. There were a crew of professional photographers including Dan Bannister working on advertising photos for a new surf line. Here is his site http://danbannister.com. He is from Canada and was seems to have a pretty good line up.
It was another beautiful night and caught a couple of good sunset shots at the pier again.
Splat Photograph Featured by 500PX
My photo Splat, which featured Parkour and Flour motion, was featured today for a contest held by 500px. The contest was called Rorschach which is the famous ink blots that they would use to understand your personality.
You can check out the entire gallery here: http://500px.com/blog/573/weekly-monday-contest or you can check out my profile at 500px here for all of my images: http://500px.com/frankiefoto.
Spring Cleaning at Moms
Danny, Camille and Geno headed over to Mom’s to help her fix her front yard. Mom said she felt like a crazy lady living in her house with an overgrown front yard.
It had been about 1 year since she had done a major cleaning of the front yard so it was time for another.
After about 5 hours of ripping out old plants and replacing them with new roses, the yard started to look like the type of place that mom could be proud of.
Check out the time lapse video below that captures all 5 hours in about 45 seconds. We wish it was that fast and easy!
The finished product was something to be proud of.
The Best San Diego Train Ride
When you come to San Diego you have the chance to take probably one of the most beautiful train rides in the world. In my opinion one of the greatest train rides in the US is the Amtrak Coaster line that goes from DownTown San Diego all the way up to Santa Barbara.
What makes the train ride so unique and so special is the fact that for much of the trip you hug the edge of the coastline with unobstructed views of the Pacific Ocean. You wind and zig and zag pass miles and miles of pristine sandy beaches all from the comfort of your train seat.
The train has beverages and food service and you can go to the dining car, have a coffee and watch the sea roll past your window as you read the paper. What a joy it is to relax on this train and see some of the best coastline in the entire world.
The train ride takes about 5 hours but you end up in beautiful San Diego or Santa Barbara when you depart from the train.
Tonight I took pictures of the train as it rolled by Del Mar just before the sun was setting. I am sure people were enjoying their wonderful views from inside the box cars. Another beautiful San Diego sunset.
