Pink Salt Ponds

Today, I had another family outing. I don’t really enjoy these, but I go for my mom’s sake. She really likes going out to new places to have fun with the whole family, but I’m more of a homebody. All the girls wore a pretty dress and we were headed off to the Pink Salt Pond in California that got super famous on TikTok. Salt ponds apparently come in a variety of colors. Ranging from either a dark blue-green to a deep red. We’ve never seen one before, but after all the photos and videos circulating the internet, my family got very easily influenced. From where I live, the drive was insanely long. I began the trip at 9 am but we didn’t get to the salt pond until 3 or 4 pm.

When we got there, the pink pond was surrounded by other different colored salt ponds and marshes. There was a sign that said you could even fish at the marshes. But, that’s not what we came for so we took a little stroll, past the metal walkway through the dry 5 foot weeds, and got to the pond. It seriously was pink! No photoshop or color correction needed! The walkway led us to a short dirt cliff that was maybe 8 feet high, and the pink shores were right below. The cliff was NOT made of stone and to get to the shore was a steep vertical path down. Since I was wearing flip-flops, it gave me no traction on the dirt and I was scared I would slip straight down the cliff. Even if I did, I wouldn’t die, but I’d just be in a lot of pain. Due to a lot of visitors, the path was worn down a bit so you can make out which foot should go where in order not to slip. I was still scared, so I tried squatting down and taking baby steps backwards, so if I fell, my hand could grab on to a hanging rock. Welp, it was all in vain because about 10% down, my flip-flops gave away and I slipped from my knees all the way down the path. I had a straight line from my thighs to my toes of where I got scratched by the dead/dry wheat growing on the dusty dirt. I didn’t bleed but I had to peel away the hanging loose skin and my legs turned very red and raw. Anyways, nothing to cry about.

There was a lot of people there. All the women were wearing flowy dresses. Some people even brought their babies for a photo op! Other people brought props with them for their photos too, like decorative umbrellas and huge decorative handheld fans.

Near the shore, the water was more red-white, maybe about 5 feet down, the water was a majestic deep red, and anything further than that, the water honestly just looked blue. So, if you see any videos or photos of the California Pink Salt Pond, and it’s ALL pink/red, it’s probably been photoshopped/color-corrected. I’m not even sure how the water would go from a dark red to a dark blue, but I’m sure there’s some smart answer for it. There was also a line of salt rocks that formed in the deep waters. I don’t know if those rocks were completely salt or if they were regular rocks with salt growing all around it, but they did look really cool. So, instead of regular sand at the shore, there were white pebbles of salt. Some turned brown, most likely due to being stomped on by everyone’s dirty ass shoes, but it was still a cool spectacle. I got too close to the shore at one point, and some of the water accidentally seeped into my flip-flops and in-between my toes. The water felt weird. Oddly oily? The water was warm and would not dry up. Even after we left and were in the car on the drive back, my toes were still wet and slippery.

Even though it was 4pm, the sun was still blazing. I always talk about the weather in these types of posts, but I do feel like they add a good touch to the story. It was insanely sunny and hot. The California heat really is something else. Close to almost every body of water, the wind will be going crazy. It was blowing my hair each and every way; up, down, side-to-side, diagonal, in my face, and away from my face. So even though our bodies were getting sunburnt, the wind would blow away all of our sweat. If we wanted to hide in the shade of the cliffs, the cliff would block the wind and therefore make us pant in the dry heat and have us sweat buckets and buckets.

In the end, was the super long drive worth it? Ehhhhhhhh. We were able to get some nice photos and enjoy a day out, but ehhhhhhhhhh. The same results could’ve been done by going to our local river and a touch of photoshop.

TLDR: Pink ponds are pink.