Last night I figured something out. Kyuss, the metal band credited with spawning the poorly named genre "stoner rock" released their last album in 1995 "...And The Circus Leaves Town." The album cover art is a bit hard to make out. It's a fisheye shot of a flooded area, that is upside down and mirrored.
I thought it was a weird winter scene for years, which is odd for a band from the southwest.
Here it is with the proper orientation:
Last night I discovered that the photo was shot in Bombay Beach, which on the Salton Sea and, to but it delicately, a complete shithole.
The same spot, 5 years later.
The area is the inspiration for a similarly decaying area in Grand Theft Auto V called Sandy Shores: