Salvation Mountain

Salvation Mountain, which is about an hour and a half drive from Palm Springs, has been on my "Things to Do/See" list for quite some time now. I was finally able to cross it off my list when my husband and I traveled to this colorful and crazy location several weeks ago. I thought today would be an appropriate time to post these pictures for two reasons. First, it is Easter and Salvation Mountain features not only vivid colors but also Biblical verses scrawled in paint just about everywhere. Second, this is the first weekend of the Coachella Music festival and many people in attendance will probably be visiting this site since the location of Salvation Mountain is just a short drive from the Coachella Valley. Regardless of whether your reason(s) for visiting Salvation Mountain are religious or secular, it definitely has something for everyone, which I hope you'll discover in my photos below!

Yes, Salvation Mountain is a lot of eye candy to take in, but once you get past all the vivid colors, one is left wondering just how this unique mountain that serves as monument to God ended up in the middle of the desert! Simply, it's the creation of a man named Leonard Knight. He started building the mountain in 1984 out of adobe clay, hay, tires, tree branches and, of course, gallons and gallons of paint! The amazing thing is that he continued to build it and expand it for decades, pretty much up until his death in 2014. Now that's what I call a labor of love!

Above, you can see some of the trees that have been vividly painted and form sort of an underground bunker in the newer section of the mountain. Below, you can see all of the paint cans and one of the many messages written in numerous locations throughout the mountain. That "God Is Love" appears to be Knight's inspiration for creating the mountain in the first place.

More love and more paint! Salvation Mountain, which is described as a work in progress, is always looking for more paint, so if you decide to visit and have extra paint, they would be more than happy to accept the donation. I do have some unused paint in our garage, but it's just a boring neutral color, so I'm not sure it would quite fit with the color scheme of the mountain!

As you can see, Salvation Mountain offers something for everyone. You can reflect on its messages, admire it as a piece of folk art, or just enjoy it for being something unique, strange, wonderful and colorful in the middle of the desert. I think all of these were the intent of its creator because after we visited Salvation Mountain, I viewed an old interview with Leonard Knight and the one thing that he wanted more than anything was to just have people come and be happy looking at his creation. I think he definitely achieved this and more!

An Oasis of Color in the Desert

Last week my husband and I took a mini excursion to Palm Springs and then drove about an hour and a half along the Salton Sea to Salvation Mountain. In brief, Salvation Mountain is a gigantic, colorful mountain made of tires, wood, hay, adobe, and lots of paint. I will be posting more about the history of this amazing place next week on my blog because I feel that it deserves to have its own post. For now, however, here is what I wore to Salvation Mountain and, yes, I did plan ahead so that my outfit would match the backdrop!

First, my top is from SheIn, which you can find here and it is a wonderfully versatile piece. I'm a big fan of anything with pinstripes and the ruffles are just an added bonus. I thought the simplicity of the blue and white stripes would be the perfect complement to the blue and white stripes featured on Salvation Mountain. Apparently, the stripes running down the mountain are supposed to be waterfalls, which I would not have guessed because there are flowers sprouting up in the middle of them. Then again, the creator of this place had quite a vivid imagination, so anything is possible!

One thing that I didn't plan for, but that worked out quite nicely, is the yellow path that guides the visitor along his or her journey up Salvation Mountain. (If you stray from the yellow path, a man with a megaphone will yell at you, which I, along with numerous other visitors, found out!) Clearly, this evokes the idea of the yellow brick road from The Wizard of Oz and my red shoes were somewhat reminiscent of Dorothy's ruby slippers from the film. I didn't intend to allude to the film when I planned my ensemble. I did, however, feel a little bit like Dorothy while traveling through this mysterious, magical and very colorful oasis in the midst of the drab desert.

I should include a brief note about my blowing hair in the above picture and my blowing shirt in the below picture, along with most of the other pictures in this post. Although it may appear that a crew with a wind machine was following me around like they do Ivanka Trump, this blowing was actually just the result of natural wind gusts in the desert. These high winds added an additional challenge but also, I think, some dramatic flair to the pictures.

Shirt: c/o SheIn blue and white striped ruffle shirt here
Pants: J. Crew similar here
Shoes: J. Crew similar red flats here
Sunglasses: Celine similar white sunglasses here

Linking Up With: Trend Spin, On Trend Tuesday, Turning Heads