Top 7 Things To Do In Slab City
Slab City is an off grid “community” in the Southern California desert a few hours inland from San Diego. Originally built in the 1940’s as a military base, by the 50’s it was closed and the structures torn down, leaving just the concrete slabs. In the 60’s snowbirds, nomads, and desert dwellers in RV’s migrated to Slab City where they could park their homes for free.
Many people, including me, first learned of Slab City in the 2007 movie Into The Wild. In the film “Alexander Supertramp” visits this desert oasis and I’ve been yearning to see Slab City for myself. A few weeks ago I obtained the best copilot I could find, Brad Tumbleson, my Louis Vuitton clad cousin from Orange County, and rambled inland. I was sure we’d fit right in…
We departed on Saturday morning and made the long drive across the desert (which is freakin’ flat), past the Salton Sea (which is freakin’ huge), through Niland (which is freakin’ dead), and out to the area known as Slab City.
Top 7 Things To Do in Slab City…And 1 Thing Not To Do
Disclaimer: This was intended to be a top 10 list, but due to circumstances beyond our control (or as a direct result of our actions) the top 10 list was reduced to 7 things to do in Slab City, and 1 thing to avoid.
1 – Enter Through The Front Gate
Slab City – The Last Free Place. Whatever that means. I’m not sure what this concrete cube used to be, but it was kinda cool. It included a warning notice about not talking to anyone we didn’t already know. Guess we wouldn’t be making any new friends.
2 – Climb Salvation Mountain
Salvation Mountain is just beyond the welcome gate to Slab City, a massive colorful mound of ‘God Is Love’ art that you drive past to reach the slabs. Leonard Knight, the creator of Salvation Mountain, began its construction in 1980. The first mountain collapsed into rubble a few years later, but since the mid 80’s Leonard has grown his shrine to the Holy One by constructing a clay adobe and hay bale masterpiece that has to be seen to be believed. We climbed the mountain and explored the labyrinth of passages beneath tree limbs, hay bales, and automotive parts. Leonard passed away in 2014, so we didn’t meet the artist, but his mountain is his lasting gift to the world.
3 – Dance At The Range
Once we reached Slab City Proper we stopped by the first open lot, which happened to be The Range. The Range is an open-air night club where Slab City residents congregate for social events, including the Saturday Night Talent Show. It was Saturday so our plan was to attend, unfortunately we would have other things to do that night.
4 – Experience East Jesus
Wikipedia describes East Jesus as “an experimental, sustainable, habitable, art installation located in the Slab City area”. Allow me to translate. East Jesus is where all of your household trash goes to be reclaimed and re-purposed into some of the weirdest art you’ll ever see. But it’s cool.
We wandered the trails past dilapidated cars, discarded box fans, bottles, tires, TV’s, and pretty much anything else you can think of. I deduced from Instagram feeds that East Jesus is probably the second most photographed area of Slab City, just behind Salvation Mountain.
5 – Check Out The Books at the Slab City Library
A staple of any city is the library so it would make sense that Slab City would have its own. It may not be as big or fancy as metropolitan facilities, but the open air, pallet built library is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. No matter when you arrive, or get your vehicle extricated from the desert sand, the library is open and ready for your enjoyment!
6 – Visit The Pet Cemetery
I’m not exactly sure why you need to visit the Pet Cemetery, but it’s there, so we did. #RIPFido
7 – Edge Road Rest Area Memorial Park
This memorial park is right next to the Pet Cemetery and worth a visit. The park is small, but includes some interesting and unique memorials to some of Slab City’s well know former residents, as well as many of the area’s lesser known characters.
8 – Ahhhh Crap
There would have been more “Top Things To Do In Slab City”, but unfortunately this is the point in the story when we start the “Top Thing Not To Do In Slab City”.
What Not To Do In Slab City
On our way to check out some giant painted water tanks we were traversing a desert road when suddenly it turned from dirt to sand. Instinctively I slowed to reduce the damage….shit, no I didn’t. I gunned it and hoped for the best. A few seconds later we found ourselves 250 feet into deep sandy tracks that swallowed the van up to the axles.
We spent the next 4 hours digging, pushing, digging, pushing, drinking beer, digging, pushing, and drinking more beer to make 20 feet of progress. It was apparent that we needed help. I called AAA for towing service and almost died when they quoted me $550 commercial towing since I had gotten myself off the pavement.
I started walking toward the main drag to find someone to help when a local Slab City resident zipped by on his three-wheeler. I flagged him down and broke rule number one of of Slab City, “Don’t talk to people you don’t know”. He had one tooth and spoke with a draw that I couldn’t pinpoint, but he seemed nice and said he’d go find his four wheeler buddies and meet us at the van.
With renewed hope we returned to the van to dig a path to aid the pull. After an hour no ATV’s arrived. We’d been stood up by our only Slab City date. I made a last ditch call to my buddy Gregorio, hoping he lived close to Slab City.
Gergorio was a lifesaver. He was able to borrow a 4X4 truck and reach us just before sunset. We didn’t have tow ropes so we used our slack but we got Gregorio’s truck stuck and had to push him out. We finally got the truck on solid ground and Tantor was jerked out of the soft sand back to hard dirt with two casualties. My slack line had wrapped around my rear tire during the pull and ripped apart. Sad, but it was better than my back axle being pulled off.
The second casualty was my cell phone. As we were attaching the slack lines under the van and I shimmied in to check the loops. My cell phone must have slid out of my pocket and into the sand. After being pulled to safety we had churned up so much sand that my phone was buried for good. Next time I visit Slab City I’ll probably find my phone in the “Old Mobiles” exhibit at East Jesus.
The next morning we woke to a beautiful desert sunrise. It was Sunday and we had to move on, not to mention that after digging and pushing for 4+ hours we were kinda over the whole Slab City thing. We packed the van and ventured north, driving through Joshua Tree National Park and then back to Orange County and the civilized world.
Final Thought
My lasting impression of Slab City, the last free place, is seeing abandoned campsites with trash strewn about. Freedom is a beautiful thing, but all too often it seems to be taken advantage of. As we passed pile after pile of unclaimed trash, including clothes, shoes, books, plastic, metal, kitchen appliances, vehicles, motor homes, and concrete slabs, my final thought was…
Where there are no rules
Follows no accountability.
And the one who suffers
Is Mother Nature.
Very cool read!!! Live in Kentucky have been researching lost, last, free places “Atlantis in America”
are u researching in person. im dying to go to see slab city & ? female, 50, californian, no vehicle, no license wnought moeny for food and in misc …nicole 8052270497
How can you say Mother Nature is the one who suffers because of Slab City? As Americans, we are far more wasteful than them, and our trash just goes somewhere we don’t see and hurts Mother Natures more. I’m sorry, but the ending of this was just ugly in my eyes. These people do not like being wasteful, and they do not like when people add to the trash that’s already there.
Agreed 100%
Well said. I think we had a clue what the take would be when he said his travel companion was clad in Louis Vuitton…
The author wouldn’t have no clue to begin to understand how or why anyone would live like this or the code most who do, follow.
Agreed 100%!
Yes, you said this perfectly. I was truly disappointed in his ending to the story. Making Slab City seem wasteful and trashy. They are the most genuine, honest people you will meet. They speak truth. If this dude looked at our ocean’s, he would realize The Slab’s have nothing on that.
My Middle Son and I are seriously thinking of relocating To Slab City. I’ve read Alot talked to people on Facebook from there heard bad things good thing’s. In between things. Hoping to go check things out. I know there’s different community’s there from people on facebook. I know. Facebook. I Took off my Rose color glasses to really. See. Looking to relocate to there surrounding areas on a very fixed income
All i have to say is about that last statement and how utterly wrong it is if you are comparing it to civilization. Lets talk some examples…chicago. Detroit, baltimore, LA, San franscisco to name a few places that are way worse in trash and the pollution to mother nature and rules and accountability exist on some levels in these places. Violence and murder appear to be way worse in these places. You are being ignorant of facts. Sure, property “crimes” may exist, but guess what? They exist in the “civilized” world as well. If these people didnt need to spend most of their days trying not to die from the heat, im sure there would be plenty of volunteers to remove trash.
The next point- in the civilized world this trash is just stored in landfills and junkyards IF people are willing to care enough. Not really a much different solution but its less of an eye sore.
I think if people were truly allowed to be free, things could be different.
As it is now “society” only allows such a city in throw away, hardly useful land and you make due with what you can.
Your bias clearly shows that you lack the ability to be able to survive on your own, more or less requiring you to extract resources by force from those who learned how to adapt and succeed in getting resources, which can be finite and hard to get. Its very telling that you prefer such a society that takes advantage of such people. Who are the civilized ones?
And one last point- notice what happenes in lets say the bahamas when governments fail to provide security and resources for those people? Oh yea they band together to try to stop such madness and help each other out as best as they can.
Tell me which part of society failed society- the civilized government or the individuals who took things into their own hands when the government was not there?
Nice insight on trash and it does not matter Nature is trashed everywhere. Sad but true.
This was one of the best articles I’ve read in a long while. I learned a lot and got a feel for the place. For all these haters, I’ve got a few things to point out:
1. Facts are facts. The only reason most keep their yards clean these days is to avoid a fine. The author(s) gave an honest review/opinion of the place. They are entitled to it.
2. People wouldn’t get so angry at the Houseless Communities IF they would clean their camps, as they would clean their homes. It’s disgusting.
HOLD ON!! Before you freak out again… I was homeless for a year. I kept my area clean as I’ve done my entire life. Location matters not.
3. There is no reason as to why there couldn’t be a couple of ‘waste locations’ instead of random piles everywhere.
4. I actually run my own homeless Initiative, so don’t even start with the lack of compassion crap!
5. Cleanliness is next to Godliness.
I would like to chat with you. I liked your response. I think I could learn a lot and maybe even bring something to the table. Please DM or what6it is to private message me. Please and thank you.
No excuse for trashing our Earth! Almost Earth Day! Keep it Clean!!
Burn the environmentally friendly trash and let visitors contribute their visit by making art out of the salvageable trash, appliances, books, plastics, ect.. They can leave the finished result there somewhere, like leaving their little imprint for others in the future to see or take it with them as a memory. Simply Convert the “trashed up” area into an “Art room” for visitors. Or you could just do an annual mini Burning Man with all the art. Watch how fast you do away with the issue.
As for any left over clothing and fabric stuff, someone could sit down and cut it all up into squares, put them in an open box and start the cycle of making a really big quilt blanket and allow anyone/ visitors over the years to add the fabric pieces on. People could personalize the fabric squares with their names or do drawings on them and then sow the pieces onto the unfinished quilt and continue the visitor contribution to making the city quilt. Of course the quilt would stay there somewhere. I mean I would do these things, especially if I was high. People can look for their names on the quilt in years when they come back. A neat memory type thing.
Giant quilts out of old clothes? Think. Dry rot. Mildew. vandals wiping smelly parts. Who carries thread?
A great train of thought, just not practical.
Also, RE: burning the trash, much of that stuff, tires, electronics, plastics, are as toxic in the air as it is on the ground. I’m sure there are environmental enforcement that would have plenty to say about it also. Legally.
If y’all aren’t high then you are missing a damn good opportunity!
welp… off to slab city with a welder, forklift, and a hope of becoming a citizen.
Criminy Christmas!
This guy, clearly a cool and thoughtful fellow took time to have fun with life, share his story that most said they enjoyed and then….Turn around and trash him because he has a well dressed friend in O.C. and an opinion on people and their trash. I would have to say, people stupid enough to assume a persons character just by the clothes they wear are the ones who should really keep their mouths shut and be assumed a fool rather than to open it and remove all doubt. Adventure and style work just fine and have NO relevance to the authors point.
People ARE pigs and it is shameful what we as a species do to the planet. Yes, yes, trash is inevitable and the only responsible thing is to recycle, bury, and try to forgive our trespasses. As for the bastard who trashes the land and walks away, he should be striped naked, thrown upon his own trash heap, limbs tied down to the four compass points, goey rubbish piled against his head and scrotum and left for the flies and ants to pay their respects.
Have a nice day,
Michelle