More about Great Salt Lake
Works at Great Salt Lake
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The Great Salt Lake is an interesting reminder of our geological past.
See, the Great Salt Lake was once part of the prehistoric Lake Bonneville. Today, it is largest salt-water lake in the Western Hemisphere and is the fourth largest terminal lake in the world. Yahoo.
This lake may be a good place to learn how to swim as well, for drowning would be a very difficult feat to accomplish. Due to the fact that there are no outlets except for evaporation for the water to escape through, the Great Salt Lake is (not surprisingly) very salty and therefore will allow you to float on top of the water. That said, swimming is generally not advised.
These high salinity levels make the lake uninhabitable to all but a handful of species including shrimp, flies, and algae, which in turn make the lake a major destination for migratory birds. In addition to being a shrimp and algae paradise, there are also reports of monsters living in these waters. Supposedly a large monster with the body of a crocodile and the head of a horse attacked two salt workers in the mid 1870s. Turns out it was probably just a buffalo but the whole monster story is a lot more entertaining so we will go with that.
Local legend also has it that two whales were released in the lake in 1875 for the intent of using them for a tourist attraction. Supposedly, the whales "disappeared" into the lake and there have been no confirmed sightings since. Shocker.
Besides possibly being home to a monster and two dead whales, the lake also has one of the highest mercury levels of any body of water. While most fish cannot live in the lake due to the salinity level, if you do manage to catch a fish, you better not eat it. This lake is basically a giant salty death trap, so go and enjoy the views...if you dare.
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Here is what Wikipedia says about Great Salt Lake
The Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and the eighth-largest terminal lake in the world. It lies in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah and has a substantial impact upon the local climate, particularly through lake-effect snow. It is a remnant of Lake Bonneville, a prehistoric body of water that covered much of western Utah.
The area of the lake can fluctuate substantially due to its low average depth of 16 feet (4.9 m). In the 1980s, it reached a historic high of 3,300 square miles (8,500 km2), and the West Desert Pumping Project was established to mitigate flooding by pumping water from the lake into the nearby desert. In 2021, after years of sustained drought and increased water diversion upstream of the lake, it fell to its lowest recorded area at 950 square miles (2,500 km2), falling below the previous low set in 1963.
The lake's three major tributaries, the Jordan, Weber, and Bear rivers together deposit around 1.1 million tons of minerals in the lake per year. Since the lake has no outlet besides evaporation, these minerals accumulate and give the lake high salinity (far saltier than seawater) and density. This density causes swimming in the lake to feel similar to floating.
The lake has been called "America's Dead Sea" and provides a habitat for millions of native birds, brine shrimp, shorebirds, and waterfowl, including the largest staging population of Wilson's phalarope in the world.
Check out the full Wikipedia article about Great Salt Lake
I love the great salt lake because I have been to it many of times. I love going to Utah because it is the next prettiest state besides colorado in my opinion. I chose to comment on this photo because of the beauty it has to offer. This photo scream blue to me when I first get a glance at it. There arent many other colors that make up this photo besides the black of the road and small amounts of green in the vegetation. It blew my mind how there was a road going through the lake and how people build something like that. I definitely would reccomend this location to anyone, as it is such a beautiful sight to see.