Ever since I watched a documentary on Netflix about the Salton Sea last year, I’ve been itching to go. Luckily, we pass it on the way to Salvation Mountain, so we made a quick stop there after we did our scavenger hunt. It’s such an interesting place… the smell, the feel of the ground, and just the sight of it. It’s breathtaking, but its vastness is so out of place in the middle of the desert. And I suppose that makes sense, considering it was manmade.

There were so many birds there and True and Brave took off running toward a whole lot of them sitting by the shore to get them flying. Glow didn’t like walking on the rocky, shell-like sand, so I carried her to the shore. On the way back to the car, I told her she needed to walk, but she didn’t want to, so Brave picked her up to carry her the rest of the way. It was so cute! Brave’s such a sweetheart. All the girls are, but Brave has an extra sensitive soul.

If you plan to go to Salvation Mountain, you must stop by Salton Sea (or vice-versa), and then on your way back towards Los Angeles, grab some date shakes at Shields Date Garden. If you have extra time, grab dinner at Native Foods Cafe in Palm Springs and stop by the Ace Hotel to use their photo booth. The photo strip will be a fun souvenir to remember that day. Since we made our trip on Valentine’s Day, after our date shake we picked up sushi and headed home. We still had some surprises to give each other and the kids, so we ran out of time, preventing both Native Foods Cafe and Ace Hotel photo booth stops.