About 100 miles west of Salt Lake City near the Nevada border are the Bonneville Salt Flats. They are a densely packed 46-square-mile salt pan, a vestige of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville. The massive prehistoric lake covered much of the Great Basin region roughly 12,000 to 32,000 years ago. As the climate warmed, the water evaporated, leaving behind 147 million tons of salt.
What Pleistocene Lake Bonneville May Have Looked Like
The salt crust (which is primarily common table salt!) ranges from less than an inch thick at the edges to nearly 5 feet thick in the center.
Home to the Bonneville Speedway, drivers have been setting land-speed records here since 1914. The area is globally renowned, attracting racers from around the world.
The Various Types Of Vehicles That Race On The Bonneville Salt Flats
The Salt Flats are often used in movies, car commercials and photography shoots. Lucky for us, the public is free to drive and walk on them year-round, except when they are wet to prevent damaging the crust.
I navigated my husband to the vehicle access point. There was no guardhouse, no fee. He slowly eased our rental car onto the salt, picking up a bit of speed once he felt confident. It is an odd sensation; your brain tells you it is snow and ice, then once you process the fact that it is salt, it is even stranger.
Perfectly flat. Blinding white. The deep, rich cobalt sky transitioned into cerulean, fading to a pale powder blue at the horizon where it met the dazzling salt. The sun beat down on this otherworldly landscape. But for the temporary tire tracks, this land remains extraordinarily untouched.
Off in the distance were four or five other automobiles but Mister Rain could barely see them, so far away in the vast openness were they.
Our curiosity could no longer be denied. Parking the car, both of us planted our feet on this astounding ancient place. The salt crunched beneath our sneakers No oxygen was being circulated through my space suit, no helmet sat atop my head. Yet it felt remarkably as though I was walking on another planet.
And in just a few minutes. I would step back into my past.
For Part 2, click here.
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