Bonneville Salt Flats

The Great Salt Lake is what's left of Lake Bonneville, which covered about one third of what's now Utah back during the last Ice Age (10,000 - 30,000 years ago).

 When Lake Bonneville evaporated, it left behind large expanses of minerals, including sodium chloride - good old table salt.  At the western end of the region, about 120 miles from Salt Lake City, are the Bonneville Salt Flats, an area about 5 miles by 12 miles, known by many (especially auto enthusiasts like John) as the site of land-speed racing.   The smooth salt-based surface is a natural roadway, and the area is so flat and expansive that you can see the curvature of the earth.  The first speed record at the Flats was an unofficial 141.73 mph in 1914 by one Teddy Tetzlaff in a car called a Blitzen Benz.  The fastest recorded speed there was set in 1970 by Gary Gabolich in his "Blue Flame" rocket car -- 622.407 mph (all of these stats are from a flier put out by the Bureau of Land Management).

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Anyway, there were no timed trials there today when we visited, and we weren't going to conduct our own, but most of the 120-mile drive along I-80 offered views unlike anything we've ever seen before.  The surface looked like a field of snow or bleached white sand - but much firmer than sand

We're warned that the "shore" or edges of the salt crust may be lined with underlying mud, so driving off-road for the general public is discouraged (we stayed on the road).  It turns out that the Donner party in 1846 encountered this mud when crossing, losing time as their wagons became mired, delaying their journey and setting them up for that fateful winter crossing of the Sierra Mountains.

Those are NOT our tire tracks....

Not surprisingly, salt mining and processing is one of the industries in the area, and we passed by a Morton Salt Plant (those are piles of salt in the background): 

The town of Wendover Utah is at the western end of the Bonneville Lake area, right on the border with the town of West Wendover Nevada.   The Nevada side was lined with casinos as to be expected - even the gas stations have slot machines, so as John refilled the RV, I lost a dollar in slots before I even knew that I had played!