Utah - Bonneville Salt Flats

Time for some fun!  The next morning, after she opened her gifts, Ashlyn wanted to go eat pizza.  So we looked online for a good pizza place, found one, and headed out for an early lunch.  If you are ever in the SLC area and want pizza, you should go to Rock Creek Pizza Co. in Riverton, Utah.  We got there as they were opening and they were so cheerful and friendly.  It's nice when people seem to enjoy their jobs!  Anyway, the food was amazing.  Seriously. 

birthday girl

One place that Dan wanted to visit while we were in Salt Lake was the Bonneville Salt Flats.  After our pizza lunch, we headed west towards the flats.

Our drive skirted the Great Salt Lake and pretty soon we passed a Morton Salt plant.  So interesting.  I don't know if the salt they had piled up outside was destined to be table salt or not. 

The ditches lining the road were obviously very salty...

Sign seen at a stop along the way.  Fortunately, we saw neither...

Surprise!  There is a tree sculpture out in the middle of the Great Salt Lake Desert.  It is called The Tree of Utah and the colorful balls are covered in rocks and minerals native to Utah.

sculpture by artist Karl Momen

Parts of the salt flats were covered in water from a rain they had the day before.

We arrived, parked the car, and the kids took off.  They ran and ran:).  It was great.

It is so vast and flat that supposedly you can see the curvature of the earth.  I dunno...maybe.

The ground was really hard.  The ridges of salt look as if you can step on them and squish them flat.  Nope.  Hard as rocks.  Or rock salt, I guess :).

When we were done running and exploring, we went back up to the parking area.  They kindly provide a "foot wash" station.  A concrete pad and water hose.  We needed it, our shoes were covered in coarse salt.

Very fun!

Just a bit further and down a side road we went to the site of the Bonneville Speedway.  This was the part that Dan wanted to see.  Many land speed records have been set there.  Speeds in excess of 500 mph.  It was covered in shallow water from the rain, so we didn't get to drive on it.  It apparently gets very boggy when it is wet.

Tristan, our youngest son, asked me a week or so later if we could go back to the salt flats.  I asked him why, and he said that he felt so free when he was running out there.  He wanted to do it again :).