Sunken City

I've been wanting to explore the Sunken City for years now, and this weekend Eddie and I finally did it. If you don't know the story, Sunken City is the name of a beach along the San Pedro cliffs where a natural landslide took place in the 1920's. It started out as a gradual shift, so most of the houses were evacuated and relocated before the collapse, but a couple homes did slide into the ocean. All the residents got out safely though!

Since then, it's become a post-apocalyptic looking place where art and geology meet. There's a ton of graffiti on everything, including the palm trees, rocks, & the cliffs themselves. It was so cool to experience, you can still see the remnants of curbs, roads, and house foundations all broken into large chunks and pieces. 

We visited on Sunday, December 4th - the same day the Dakota Access Pipeline was denied permission to cross under a section of the Missouri River, so this graffiti was pretty cool to see.

I was surprised by how many other people were visiting as well, considering the area is fenced off and prohibited from public use - woops! There are a bunch of different ways to enter - we hopped a fence coming in, and found an opening in the metal bars of a different fence leaving. I feel like with social media, more and more people are seeing photos and wanting to explore for themselves, just like us. Lots of friends were hanging out in groups, drinking beer and waiting for the sun to set. 

Just floatin around, admiring the view ;)

There was a proposal made in 2015 to open up the property to visitors during daylight hours, but I think the city is still conducting research on whether the area is safe enough for that to happen. It really is an amazing place to explore though, if you don't mind hopping a fence or two and aren't afraid of heights!