A bottled water plant in the middle of the desert

While researching destinations for my recent trip to the middle of California, I came upon an interesting factoid. There is a bottled water plant in the middle of the desert, right next to the dry lake bed that it is helping keep dry.

Now, it's been all over the news about how bottled water isn't any better for you than tap water, isn't held to a higher standard, etc. And the amount of plastic and energy involved in shipping water around is silly.

But this really takes the cake. Given that this is the base of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, it makes sense for Crystal Geyser to place a plant there. But, at the same time, it gives me a lurid sick feeling to drive through the desert and see it.

The rest of the trip was just beautiful, thankfully, filled with beautiful rocks, lovely snow capped mountains, and bristlecone pines. But once I heard about it, I had to go...

My wife parked the car on the roadside and I jumped out to take pictures, figuring that eventually some security folks might chase me away. One was taken with my RB67 and 50mm lens and the other was a stitched panorama to get an even wider view than I could with my 50mm lens (25mm-e in 35mm camera terms)