East Jesus is a super rad spot to visit. Another eclectic location about a mile down the road from Salvation Mountain and is inhabited by Mopar, The Wizard. We pulled up in awe of the structures and tripped out art pieces surrounding the property. Mopar had a conversation with us about being respectful about property and personal space out there. If you see something that appears to be a fence then don’t cross it. It is probably someone’s fence and back home would you cross over someone else’s fence? No sir, I wouldn’t. So be respectful of the folks out in Slab City and East Jesus and you’ll be fine. Be sure to leave a donation here also when you stop in. Natalie gave the Wizard some cannabis so he was stoked and let us shoot there for awhile. We didn’t want to over welcome our stay without paying some kind of donation. We didn’t have cash on us so it was the least we could do. Mopar is one seriously cool guy. Natalie left him some roses and we shoved off to Bombay Beach. I’m excited to get back to East Jesus and say hi to our new friend again.

I met up with Natalie of Lazaro Floral the other weekend and we charged out of San Diego to the desert. Hit up Salvation Mountain first and it was hot AF out there. It felt like the heat was coming up from the ground. Salvation Mountain is a really rad spot. We came upon it and all of it’s beautiful colorful glory and the photos I’ve always seen online do not do this place enough justice. There was a row of cars from out of state parked and people were scattered on the mountain. I found a spot off to the side and we began to unload the gear. It was a scorcher day and there was a local lady chilling under an awning yelling up at people who were not being respectful of the rules that were clearly posted around everywhere. She happened to catch us walking up and noticed Natalie in her white stiletto boots. “Ma’am, you can’t wait your boots up there. We don’t want ya to chip the paint. I love your boots but ya just can’t wear ‘em up!”

So we walked back to the car to grab Natalie’s Doc Martens. Got back to the mountain- again- and thanked the lady for giving us the heads up. We SO appreciated her letting us know. We weren’t trying to disrespect this awesome space nor the locals. Totally LNT was on my mind. (Leave No Trace) The lady said we were “fine” and then shared a story with us of a time when Martha Stewart came out with a big crew to photograph a bride on the mountain. The wedding dress train went down the staircase and it took a entire crew to carry it up. I later found the article and am posting the link here for you to see. If you go up to Salvation Mountain be respectful of the signs, stay on the path, bring a can of paint and a cash donation.

Here are some of my favourite shots from Salvation Mountain… We continued onto other parts of Niland and will share those in another blog post.

FLORALS : Lazaro Floral

Dress:

Shoes: Doc Martens