Bonnie Hawthorne Photography

I guess that a natural progression of my inclination to talk to strangers is to take pictures of them. These two were leaving Salvation Mountain as I was arriving. They were the perfect visual gateway drug for this trippy place. Her name was Nancy. He said she was shy. I thought she was really beautiful. They let me take a few photos of them. This was the last one in the series. I like it because she had relaxed enough to really own her beauty but he still seems very protective of her.

I love his buttons. I wonder if he’s continued to wear them since the 70s or if he picked up the habit again at some point. I recognize one as David Bowie from The Man Who Fell to Earth. My friend Mary Wilson had that one, I think.

Maybe they were in a band. Maybe they were great. Maybe they still are! All I know is that they took a trip on a Sunday afternoon to visit weirdness. As did I.

Anyway… Salvation Mountain. theMike asks what all that color behind them is.

Well, it’s this. Part folk art, part love letter to Jesus, part environmental hazard. It’s the obsessive work of Mr. Leonard Knight who has been dumping gallons of paint onto gallons of paint for almost 30 years in an effort to spread his message that God is love. And as he told me about 16 times, all God wants is for us to love, and to love simply.

Inside, there are trees made from old tires filled with adobe then topped off with branches he finds in the desert.

It’s a super cool place and a beautiful work of art. But the visit left me feeling sad. We’d stayed for so long on our self-guided tour that Leonard forgot we were there. The megawatt smile was turned off, the stories about Huell Howser and all the other visitors had stopped. At the end of the day, there’s no one to share God’s message with. He’s just an old man permanently camping in the desert between Slab City and Niland, two of the saddest places in America.