For yet another day we drove through dramatic mountain countryside, stopping for lunch in the quaint mountain hamlet of Heber City, Utah, then continued on into the Salt Lake City metroplex. We saw the Olympic Ski Jump from the highway, then made landfall on one of the west's most unique phemomena: the Great Salt Lake.
Google tells us that the "Great" Salt Lake would be just a drop in Lake Superior, but it was stunning nonetheless. We visited the lake at the site of the former Saltair Resort, which in its heyday appears to have been quite the venue. Alas, its best days are well behind it, and the current Saltair has been reduced to a rather inadequate gift shop and concert venue. But from the pictures one can tell that in its day, it was one happening place.
Saltair Pavilion c. 1900 (Wikipedia)
From the Saltair parking lot we ventured across a large "beach" covered with grey, salt-infused sand and dipped our feet into the lake. The picture above shows the water right up against the pavilion. In 2010, it has receded by a good 300 yards. The water was surprisingly warm. The saltiness didn't really hit us until our feet dried and we were coated with a salty crust. But the odor was just short of overwhelming. When I worked for Rossman, I once had the opportunity to visit a dairy farm with 4,000 head of cattle. The stench of that farm was equivalent to the smell we encountered on the shore of the Great Salt Lake.
Beyond that, Salt Lake City is just another large American city. Tomorrow: Jackson Hole.
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