Being someone who loves uniqueness in nature, I will unequivocally say the Great Salt lake is one of the most distinctive and strangely beautiful places in North America.
Spend a little time researching, understanding, and especially visiting this massive body of salt water, commonly referred to as a type of inland sea, from end to end, shoreline to shoreline in fact, and you will see what I mean by such a bold proclamation.
Doing so will undoubtedly lead you to find some very interesting nuggets about the lake, from its geography to its biology to its ecology to, well, its art.
Yes, you read that right, the Great Salt Lake is indeed a gallery of sorts, one offering visitors a taste of real man-made expressive earthen art within its salty shorelines.
Far up on the very northeastern shores of the Great Salt Lake, quietly nestled in a very remote part of Box Elder County, sits what is known as the spiral jetty, a very popular piece of terrestrial art made by artist Robert Smithson in 1970.
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From what I have gleaned from other sources, this unique piece of art covers a 15-foot by 1,500 feet piece of the Great Salt Lake lakebed and was formed by using over 6000 tons of earth and black basalt rocks from the local area.
Truthfully, I am not certain what the artistic motivation was for the spiral jetty but nevertheless, it is quite an interesting and unique piece of art that attracts thousands of visitors, myself included, to the isolated site year in and year out.
From my experience as someone who loves remote places and unique attractions such as this, I personally think the spiral jetty is well worth visiting.
The spiral jetty is located in a very secluded and “out-of-the-way” section of Box Elder County, Utah with no cell phone service or modern-day conveniences to be had but I found it to be a fun afternoon drive, especially when you do a little birdwatching along the way.
As a side note for the birders and photographers out there, summertime is when the burrowing owls are back for yet another breeding season in this neck of the woods and they can oftentimes be found on roadside perches just waiting to be photographed along various parts of the drive to the jetty.
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But sadly as the Great Salt Lake continues to dry up from both drought and overconsumption of the river waters that feed the lake each year, the spiral jetty has adorned a much different look now than it used to when its rocks would stick just barely out of the salty waters of the Great Salt Lake.
In fact, with how far the lake has receded, the spiral jetty is nowhere near the water and currently sits upon a dry, barren, and thirsty lakebed.
All the spiral jetty images for this particular post were taken almost a decade ago when the lake was close to being full, well, a lot fuller than it is now that is.
The Great Salt lake does casually fluctuate up and down over time but in normal years the spiral jetty does sit in several inches or more of salt water.
And I’m just guessing here but that is what I am thinking how Robert Smithson envisioned it when he built this unique piece of art over 50 years ago.
I am betting his vision for the spiral jetty was one with water lapping all around the peculiar spiral rock formation where photographers like myself could come and try to capture a reflective sunset image over the Great Salt lake while using the interesting earthy art as a canvas and not one where it was left high and dry and unframed on a parched and barren lakebed with the Great Salt Lake quietly slipping away hundreds of yards or more off in the distance.
Being a lifelong resident of Utah and an admirer of the lake, it’s very sad to witness the Great Salt lake receding like it has been in recent times.
It is going down so fast that you can sit out on the Antelope Island causeway and almost watch the waters retreat on a hot summer’s day.
It’s also sad to see the spiral jetty now sitting on dry soil, another testament to the urgency our state leaders need to take to save the Great Salt Lake from the negligence and misuse of the rivers that fill it each year.
But it’s not just the state legislature and governor’s responsibility to save the Great Sale Lake, however, it’s all of ours here in the state of Utah by how we use our limited water supply in our own daily lives.
If we are going to even have a chance at saving the Great Salt Lake and all of the scenic and beautiful views it has to offer like the spiral jetty, you, me, and all the rest of us here in Utah need to change our views and practices on how we use water.
But before that can and will happen people need to be motivated with a reason to even save the Great Salt Lake in the first place and that can and only will happen if people will take the time to visit, understand, and appreciate what the Great Salt Lake has to offer as a part of nature and not as a commodity to be bought and sold like a common tennis racquet.
Visit a place on the lake like the spiral jetty, for example, at sunset with nothing but the soothing sights and gentle sounds of the Great Salt Lake lapping at your feet right at dusk and I think everyone would find a reason to conserve a bit of water each day to keep the rivers flowing to help quench a very thirsty and dwindling lake.
We can’t expect to save the Great Salt Lake if society doesn’t appreciate its beauty and that can and only will happen if people will visit the lake and see firsthand how incredible it really is.
I know it doesn’t look like much now with its seemingly endless and barren mudflats and dry harbors but when the Great Salt Lake waters are where they should be, grand sunsets, millions of birds, and a quiet serenity found nowhere else in the world can and will captivate even the harshest of critics if given have a chance.
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