SLC 2012: What's so Great about the Great Salt Lake?

[bedsitter23]

With apologies to Rhett Miller and the Old 97s.

I have been to Salt Lake City on four occasions, and this is my first time seeing the Lake. Don't be alarmed, as things to do in Salt Lake City, seeing the Lake is near the bottom of the list.

Now, the Great Salt Lake does surround Antelope Island, which does seem to be a place to go. Sadly, from where I was, it was about a 45 minute drive and wasn't going to be doable. I will still set it out there as a recommendation- I am told it is a palce where you might see bighorn sheep, bison, eagles, and one would presume Antelope.

I also didn't go into the nearby Oquirrh Mountians, which time permitting would have also been interesting. This contains one of the world's open pit mines and a few ghost towns.

The Great Salt Lake is beautiful, for sure, but may be the smelliest beach I have ever been to. Clearly, only tourists were stopping to see it. Although, the place was filled with boats and yachts, there wasn't much else to recommend it.

Still, I was with a friend who was also new to the Lake, and so we both agreed we had to at least 'taste' it. As I tell this story, i would like you to picture me taking a big gulp of the Lake, though that does not resemble what I really did. Needless to say, it was salty.

Because of the high salt content (which is where Morton gets most of its Salt, I am told, but too lazy to look up), there's no fish. What there is was a lot of brine shrimp, and thus, a lot of brine flies.

It's the Brine Flies that are the most memorable thing about the experience. Move towards them and a thousand barely visible creatures move. It's like using The Force.




Palace of the Brine!





Antelope Island



The Mine across the street