Just a short distance from the entrance to Slab City is a small, brightly colored mountain celebrating the vision of the mountain’s creator, Leonard Knight. Leonard built the mountain out of adobe. It stands fifty-feet into the clear blue low desert sky. At the bottom of the mountain lays a flat blue area representing the Sea of Galilee. In the center of the mountain there’s a giant red heart with the sinners prayer written in white. On the top of the mountain there’s a large white cross, towering over the sculpted words, “God Is Love.”

As the story goes, Leonard was attempting to build a giant blimp to deliver his message “God is Love” to the masses. The blimp got too big and couldn’t fly. In the mid-1980’s Leonard found himself in the vicinity of Slab City for a work trip. Seeing as his blimp couldn’t fly, he decided to build a monument of a mountain to communicate his message to the masses instead. The monument of a mountain took him four years to complete, but the completed mountain quickly crumbled.

Leonard then decided to rebuild with adobe (instead of cement) and more paint. His materials have been and continue to be donated to him by the community. In the 1990’s, the mountain was nearly demolished due to presumed lead pant toxicity. The land was tested to reveal lead-free results.

I would recommend you spend at least a good hour exploring this splash of color and eccentricity in the midst of the otherwise dry brown desert landscape. There are a few people on site who help maintain the mountain and are happy to share stories of Leonard’s legacy.