Utah
Appearing on this page are pictures from an interactive field trip taken to the Great Salt Lake in Utah on August 13, 2007.
The Great Salt Lake, as seen from Saltair at Exit 104 off of Interstate 80, just south of the lake and approximately 17 miles west of downtown Salt Lake City. Rising in the distance is is 15-mile long Antelope Island, home of the state park of the same name and haven for a sizeable herd of wild buffalo and numerous protected waterfowl, including the Wilson's phalarope and several species of owls and other raptors. The island is accessible from the mainland by a 7-mile long causeway that joins with Interstate 15 halfway between Salt Lake City and Ogden. The Great Salt Lake is saltier than the oceans, and one can float in the water and experience what it's like to be unsinkable, even in the southern half of the lake which is only about a third as salty as the northern half.
Another view of the lake showing the western end of Antelope Island, which is also home to pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep, deer, jackrabbits, cottontails, coyotes, badgers, porcupines, and various rodents. Just west of Antelope Island and barely visible on the horizon is one of the smaller and more distant islands in the Great Salt Lake, uninhabited Fremont Island.
The Great Salt Lake, which lies 10 miles northwest of downtown Salt Lake City, is the largest lake in the United States west of the Great Lakes and the 33rd largest lake in the world. The lake has varied in size from 900 square miles to 3,000 square miles (80 miles long and 50 miles wide at its longest and widest points) and in depth from 25 feet to 45 feet in the last 135 years, and was once believed to have been a part of prehistoric Lake Bonneville 16,000 years ago, which covered 20,000 square miles and was more than 900 feet deep, before shrinking to its present size and depth some 8,000 years ago. All of the land in the foreground was once covered by the saline waters of the lake, most recently in 1987, just a few years after the lake had reached one of its highest points in recorded history.
Another of the eleven current named islands in the Great Salt Lake (there are several other smaller unnamed islands which have spent part of their history submerged), Carrington Island rises on the horizon in the distance. Once much smaller, Carrington Island has increased in size and visibility as lake waters have receded in recent years and is actually becoming a peninsula attached to the mainland by a thin strip of salt-covered mudflats. As the water recedes, many of the beaches surrounding the lake appear white due to the salt left behind. Most lakes drain both water and sediment; the Great Salt Lake maintains its salinity level due to the fact that it doesn't drain into other areas and its waters evaporate or dry up from time to time, leaving the sediment that was washed down from the snowmelt of the nearby mountains exposed.
On the left hand side of this picture in the distance is relatively large and relatively close Stansbury Island, with mountains that rise between 6,000 and 7,000 feet above sea level, and between 2,000 and 3,000 feet above the surface of the Great Salt Lake. At 4,204 feet above sea level, the Great Salt Lake is one of the largest lakes in the world to sit at so high an elevation (the Great Lakes all sit at between 200 and 600 feet above sea level). Stansbury Island, like many of the Great Salt Lake's islands, is actually a peninsula at times of receding water levels in the lake. Currently, the "island" is connected to the mainland by salt-covered mud flats, which were submerged only years before. Just beyond the peaks of Stansbury Island are the Lakeside Mountains, which also have peaks between 6,000 and 7,000 feet. Several miles beyond these mountains lies the Bonneville Salt Flats, one of the smoothest and flattest surfaces on earth, which was why it was the perfect location for the Bonneville Speedway and the speed tests of several vehicles, including the famous Blue Flame, which set a land speed record or 622.4 Miles per hour in 1970. The flats, which cover approximately 70 square miles and are as hard as cement in some areas, are part of the Great Salt Lake Desert, which stretches from the west side of the Lakeside Mountains to the Nevada border.
Looking back from the shore of the lake to Interstate 80, which had to be raised 7 feet more above sea level than its original height in the mid 1980s due to flooding that resulted from heavy runoff from melted snow that had fallen as part of the record-breaking snowfall of the winters of 1982-83 and 1983-84. The interstate had been originally built in 1963 when the lake was at a record low level of 4,191 feet above sea level. Several farmlands, evaporation ponds used for potash production, beaches, wildlife refuges, and buildings were washed away, destroyed, or permanently damaged. The salinity level in some parts of the lake dropped from 20% to 6%, causing a chain reaction of adverse effects to the local ecosystems surrounding the lake. Although no fish live in the lake due to the high salinity levels, brine shrimp call the lake's waters home. They feed on algae and bacteria that depend on high salinity levels to survive. But the flooding decreased the salinity level, causing much of the algae and bacteria that the brine shrimp depended on to disappear. As a result, much of the brine shrimp in turn disappeared, as did many of the brine flies who depended on rotting vegetation near the shore before the floods to survive. The numbers of many local migratory waterfowl species, including the California gull (which ironically is Utah's state bird), the white-faced ibis, and the Gunnison Island white pelican, declined massively in and around the Great Salt Lake in the late 1980s, but have since returned to close to pre-flood levels.
Many resorts existed on the shore of the Great Salt Lake from time to time. Saltair, a mere rebuilt shadow of what it was in its original form when built in 1893 and in its first rebuilt hey day in the 1920s and 1930s, now has concessions, a small public exhibit about the lake, and a concert venue, all located relatively close to the Great Salt Lake State Marina (formerly a state park, it still has a ranger on duty), where Salt Island Adventures offers boat charters and scenic cruises. The Saltair Pavilion, which was destroyed in a series of fires (the last of which was in 1970) and once had its dance floor beneath five feet of water during the floods of the mid 1980s, has been rebuilt, repaired, and renovated numerous times, as well as being resold to and reopened by numerous investors over the years. The pavilion now hosts concerts and is available for rent for other events.
Temperatures in this region can approach freezing in the winter and top out in the 100s in the summer. On this day, with only a few light breezes, as evidenced by the drifting smoke of construction vehicles in the distance on the other side of the Interstate, the temperature reached 102 degrees, despite the high elevation. With certain cities in Utah being ranked by national magazines as more desirable and affordable places to live, the population of cities such as St. George and Cedar City in the south and Provo, Ogden, and Salt Lake City in the north have been booming for the past decade. As a result, construction in these areas is also booming, as cities like Salt Lake City extend their sphere of influence westward, balancing increased demands for an increasing population with fragile surrounding ecosystems.
On the right hand side of this picture are the Wasatch Mountains rising in the distance on the horizon. With many peaks between 8,000 feet and 9,500 feet, these mountains gather a significant amount of snow in the winter, which continues to feed the Great Salt Lake with spring and summer runoff when the snow melts.
A final view of the stark difference between the high desert floor where the Great Salt Lake sits and the Wasatch Mountains, home of much of Utah's winter sports recreation areas. The Great Salt Lake and its surrounding ecosystems face an uncertain future that depends greatly on the climate patterns of the entire surrounding region for the next several decades.