Day 5: The Great Salt Lake and The Gateway

If I actually had a bucket list, today I would have checked something off. Today I floated in the Great Salt Lake.

This buoyancy comes from the extreme salinity which is the result of many freshwater streams high in minerals emptying into the lake with no outlet. Evaporation leaves behind a concentration of salt at least 6 times that of the oceans. No wonder a body can float. In fact, just try to sink. It’s not possible. That is unless you double up. I tried to sit on Frank’s stomach while he floated on his back but we went to the bottom. Of course the bottom was only about two feet below us at that point.  Perhaps in a deeper area, we may have been more buoyant.  At 72 miles at the longest and 30 miles at the widest and 28 feet at the deepest, the GSL is still only one tenth the size it was centuries ago when it was a freshwater lake known as Lake Bonneville. At that time, it was 20,000 square miles. Where most of Lake Bonneville used to be now are the Bonneville Salt Flats, famous for the setting of land speed records.

Our BCAA guide book directed us to Salt Lake State Park on the south shore of GSL. It was practically deserted. We crunched across the salt flats on the shore which emitted a very unusual and somewhat unpleasant odour – not the usual salty/fishy oceanside odour. But something just slightly rotten. It may be the high concentration of salt in the sand/mud combined with decaying organic matter. (The only organisms that can tolerate the high salt content are algae and brine shrimp so these may be the culprits). We didn’t see any live algae or brine shrimp but did encounter a large number of sand fleas. But, they didn’t bother us and we didn’t bother them.

After floating for awhile, my lips tasted like I had eaten a big bag of potato chips and when my skin dried, I could literally brush off fine crystals of salt.

We went to the lake in the morning which left us the afternoon for SHOPPING. Yay! The Gateway is a two level outdoor shopping mall with loads of stores (some of the usual suspects) including one of the best kitchen stores I’ve ever seen.

Downtown was abuzz today with many activities including, as near as we could tell peering over the barricades, motor cross and skateboard demonstrations or competitions. (We later found out it was the Dew Tour, a competitive US multi-sports event). There was music and dancing in a cultural diversity festival, kiosks of crafts with one displaying the Koran and other Islamic literature. We had no idea if this activity was to celebrate a particular event or if it was just Saturday. We did notice, however, the numbers of young people. Everywhere we looked throughout downtown, there were small and large groups of teenagers. One might expect a number of college aged students letting down their hair on the weekend, it’s a university town after all, but these were younger – high school aged mostly. Most were stylishly dressed, the girls in particular, and were happily on their way to somewhere.  I started to wonder where all the older folks were. When we did notice couples our own age they were conspicuous in the younger crowd. Which of course meant so were we to them.

This is our last night in Salt Lake City and I’m going to be sad to put her behind us. It’s a beautiful city with a cohesive blend of heritage and modern architecture woven in all directions with prolific flower gardens – and trees, lots of trees. But, speaking for myself, the most memorable will be the warmth of the people I met at Temple Square.

Until tomorrow . . . .