Salvation Mountain

Since seeing the movie "Into the Wild," this place has been a place we wanted to visit one day. It was about a 2.5 hr drive from Idyllwild. Since we were already going to the Salton Sea, only 30 minutes away, we made a quick stop.

The "mountain" is in Niland, CA, seemed like in the middle of nowhere where I bet summers are really hot. The view from the top.
I don't remember but apparently these bluebirds were a well known part of the movie.

Mr. Knight was kind enough to give us a tour. He tells us the tree trunks are made out of tires.

He seemed happy to have visitors, and encouraged us to take lots of pictures. It was very nice meeting him and I'm glad we got the opportunity.

Inside his second "mountain", filled with tree branches.

Although this place was created with religious beliefs in mind, it is an amazing work of art.

The man is 79 yrs old and still going at it. He tells us he's trying to get Congress to recognize this place as a national treasure so it will be protected and be available for our future children to see, and how happy that would make him. After coming home, I read online that Salvation Mountain was placed under protection in 2002 when Barbara Boxer entered it into the Congressional Record as a national treasure. If anyone reading this blog post makes it out there someday, please let him know his wish has already been granted.