So, west of the Great Salt Lake, west of Saltair and Tooele, there is the Great Salt Lake Desert. Much of it was the bottom of a gigantic prehistoric lake that stretched over some 20,000 square miles about 18,000 years ago. We now call that dried up old body of water Lake Bonneville. Or the Great Salt Lake Desert around here.
It’s about 4000 square miles of unusual flat terrain, much of it startlingly white, and parts of that desert are used by the US Military for various purposes. And the original Lincoln Highway went to the south of the desert, but one of the later official Lincoln routes followed what was called the Victory Highway directly west across the salt.
Yes, it’s got a layer of salt on top of its huge flatness that makes it look as though it’s snow or ice. But it’s too hot for that.
Interstate 80 now follows the route straight across the desert. More than 50 miles of absolute straightness. There’s even a median of salt between the two eastbound and the two westbound lanes, all of which are slightly raised above the desert level, so the roads appear to be extremely long parallel causeways.
We loved this. It is an astonishing drive. It looks like nowhere else we had ever seen. I guess if you get accustomed to it, it might be tedious and dull, but we were amazed.
There are signs that warn:
DROWSY DRIVERS
PULL OVER IF NECESSARY,
so we didn’t go far before Bob wanted to pull over to get a few frames. The sun was getting low, and this was so unusual. We started on the berm near the van, but Jarrett soon realized he still had cell phone service out here, and he wandered off toward the salt to call home.
Bob sees that Jarrett is OK out on the salt, so he wants to get the camera and tripod out there too. We all walk out. We find that the salt is a relatively thin layer on top of a gray clay-y layer that could be slippery. We get some shots.
Then Bob and I try our phones too. We all call home to say that we’re out in the middle of the salt flats. Just because we can. You don’t expect such service out in the desert.