My husband, daughter, and I recently made a road-trip to visit The Bonneville Salt Flats, close to where the western border of Utah meets Nevada.
According to Wikipedia:
“The Bonneville Salt Flats are a densely packed salt pan in Tooele County in northwestern Utah. The area is a remnant of the Pleistocene Lake Bonneville and is the largest of many salt flats located west of the Great Salt Lake. The property is public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management and is known for land speed records at the “Bonneville Speedway”. Access to the flats is open to the public.”
My husband and I have lived in Utah for over 15 years and had often talked about visiting the salt flats. We have driven by them several times on road trips to/from California, and seen movies featuring the Salt Flats, such as ‘The World’s Fastest Indian’ (a 2005 New Zealand biographical sports drama film based on the Invercargill, New Zealand, speed bike racer Burt Munro, played by Anthony Hopkins, and his highly modified 1920 Indian Scout motorcycle); but we had never stopped there before.
The Salt Flats made a great day-trip and are well worth a visit. They stretch on for miles and it’s crust, with its myriad of hexagonal patterns, is mesmerizing. They are a beautiful to photograph, and popular for family photos and magazine photoshoots. To the north-northwest of the Salt Flats are The Silver Island Mountains, which on clear days, make a beautiful backdrop. The Salt Flats also seem a good activity choice during the Covid-19 pandemic, when people are often looking for outdoor activities to do which are not overly crowded.
Photo: Exploring the Bonneville Salt Flats, 2020.
The website Visit Utah shares some interesting information about the Salt Flats, such as history, visiting, and so on. Including:
- The formation of the Salt Flats began at the end of the last Ice Age, when the waters of ancient Lake Bonneville began to recede.
- Entrance is free and open to the public most of the year.
- A 12-by-5 mile stretch occupying 300,000 acres of Utah’s pristine west desert, the Bonneville Salt Flats is like no other place on earth. A salt crust ranging from a few inches to 5 feet thick forms a perfectly flat, uniform, blindingly white crust as far as the eye can see. The flats are about 12 miles long and five miles wide, covering about 46 square miles in total. Visitors from all around the world have traveled to see this pristine, otherworldly landscape.
- Aside from the beautiful views, the salt flats are an international hub for car racing. Several speed records have been set at the flats, including the one-time land-speed record of 630 mph, established in 1970 and standing until 1983.
If you are ever visiting Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, a one and a half hour drive (each way) to visit the Salt Flats, is worth putting on your itinerary.
There are many other wonderful places to visit in Utah, including: Bryce Canyon National Park, Zion National Park, Snow Canyon State Park, Moab, Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Escalante National Monument, Capitol Reef National Park, Dead Horse Point State Park, Goblin Valley State Park, and more! I plan to share future posts about some of these. Happy exploring!
Lydia, Utah, USA.
Google Local Guide Level 8
, Farid