I survived the City with NO LAWS... they'll warn you not to go

In the middle of the California desert is America's last town with no laws. Slab City has no electricity, no running water, and no law enforcement. As I made my way back home on my cross-country trip, I had to stop and see this town for myself and the strange and unique places surrounding it. For this is the story of the miracle sea in the desert, the Salton Sea. I am here at Salton Sea that looks and smells like a dirty ocean, but it's not an ocean, it's a lake. And that crunching you hear under my feet, it's not sand, it is fish bones. That is what the sand is made up of here in Salton Sea. This sea has been through seasons of plenty of rain and also years of drought, so this used to be a popular resort back in the 1950s. But after so much of the water had dried up, it got too salty to maintain the animals in it. So fish just started dying and washing up on shore and there was just thousands, probably millions of fish all along the shore. So obviously the resort shut down and this isn't exactly the kind of beach you want to take your shoes off and go for a walk. And we're about 40 minutes outside of Slab City. Amanda's waiting for me back up at the parking lot. I don't think she wanted to come today. National Parks is more her thing versus beaches of dead fish and anarchy towns. But I was scared to go by myself, so she's coming along. She's a good friend. All right, let's head back up there. We made it to Salvation Mountain, just the start of Slab City. Amanda, how do you feel about coming to a town with no laws? I'm sure they're normal people like everybody else. They just want to be left alone. Okay. Tim. Who's that? How do you feel about coming to a town with no laws? Man, I feel like an outlaw. You do? I probably should have brought my stick shooter or something, you know? Yeah, I'm a little nervous. So I'm glad you guys are here, so at least I'm not alone. Oh yeah, yeah. I'm pretty chill. You run into any crazy stuff yet? No, but we just got here, so let's see. So this was built by Leonard Knight. I think it said it took him like 40 or 50 years and it was like his way. He wanted to obviously show a message about God. Now it's kept up by volunteers and people donate paint buckets, but he built it all himself by hand with like adobe clay and layers and layers of paint. So apparently when we walk, you can feel it like squishing under your feet because there are just so many layers of paint of him and people trying to keep it up and keep it looking as bright and pretty as it does. I feel like I should be whispering. I don't know. I'm still nervous, I guess. Apparently the roof has caved in over there, so we can't go in there. Oh wow, you can see like windows. Man, too bad we can't go in there. So a lot is closed for repairs, it looks like. Okay, we made it to East Jesus. So this is where anyone can create art out of trash and it is really cool looking. Like there, look at this, there's an abandoned airplane. What? Like they're all sorts of things. Like, oh my gosh. What do you think of East Jesus, Amanda? I grew up rural Montana. We're rednecks. A bunch of trash piled together to look pretty ain't new. It's new to me. This is cool. Now we're going to check out the Church of Enlightenment. I'm not sure what this is about, but I thought it was pretty cool to point out that there's a library here, there's a hostel down the road, there's a cafe, there's an internet cafe. Yeah, I kind of wish I was staying here longer. Marilyn. Hi, Jo, sit down. Thank you. I'm recording, is that okay? Yeah, yeah, you go ahead. Are you the doctor? I'm Dr. Spencer and this is Brad. Hi Brad, nice to meet you. I live here, I've been here seven years. I'm a retired acupuncturist, a Chinese herbalist, and a sex therapist. Oh wow. Yes, so why don't you show them around the garden first. Okay. And then show them the hobbit house. I sure will. I'd love to. Take pictures and do all of that. Thank you so much. Show them the solar oven and all that. So here we are in the middle of the desert and he has an oasis. Oh wow. And he says he grows, you know, enough vegetables for several people. So this is just lovely and it brings in the water and he has a number of water systems. There's those fish ponds back here, I'll show you. Oh my gosh. He's got frogs, I mean, and frogs' toes in there. But this is lovely and so there's all, here's tomatoes. Oh my gosh. And these are, you know, lots of greens and spinach and lettuces and here's some herbs. What do you say here? This is about people come here and they say, can we climb that tower? Because it's a Yeah, they're making a nest up there. There was eggs in there. Yeah. And there's binoculars up there. But I tell people, you have to pass the test. You have to walk the balancing beam to show me you're not stoned out of your mind and can be trusted up there and put five dollars in the donation box and we can build it two stories higher. So anybody who wants to do that has to do that. Just take a running, you know, running start here. I won't run. All the way down. I don't want to risk my chance of climbing that tower. Pretty good. Okay, so I passed the test. I'm not high. So I'm going to climb Doctor's Tower. Chocolate Mountain. Salt and Sea. Amanda and Tim. To the top of the Tower of Enlightenment. 48 steps, Doctor. Told me to count. And now I just gotta go down. Oh boy. I counted 48 steps. That was fun. Do you feel any more enlightened? I don't know. Am I enlightened? You're on the path to enlightenment. All right. You know what happens when you get to enlightenment? What? Your consciousness expands to the whole universe and you understand the uniqueness of this whole existence that we have. You just understand. Have you gotten there yet? No. So I came back. I had to cut the last visit so short because I was trying to get to Phoenix before dark where I was going to meet Cody and have a weekend break from the trip and hang out with him. But we're going to try a motovlog through Slab City on my old GoPro and I really wanted to come back and spend more time here. I mean, this place is just so peaceful here and it's, I don't know, it's just, I think it's really cool. There's a library. Let's go check the library out. Disable traction control. All right. Let's do it. Here's the library. Library property. Private. Oh, that went deep. Let's go check it out. Welcome. This is so cool. Suspense. Oh wow. This is pretty big. There are a lot of books in here. Hello. How are you? Good. How are you? Awesome. Thank you. What brought you here? Life, huh? Yeah. I think I'd like to get this one. It's a Kalanite. What's it called? Kalanite. That's pretty. Slab City is a living piece of what a new and different world could look like. A town where people prioritize freedom above all else. And to think, just shortly before this, instead of hot desert sand, we were surrounded by snow, visiting an old world where people prioritize success above all else. The abandoned ghost mining town of Cerro Gordo.