The Great Salt Lake

You know your bucket list – that list of things you want to do before you bite the dust. I got to check an item off this last month. I’m not really into sharing all my bucket list items but this one was a weird one.
Ever since I was a young boy, every time I drive by the Great Salt Lake I have wondered what the water was like. Somehow in the back of my mind I knew it probably would not be a pleasant experience, nevertheless it has been pestering me for years.
We went to visit a few of Tara’s best friends from Highschool, Marci and her 5 children and husband from Arizona and Becky and her 4 children and her friend Bobby and his daughter from Colorado, we all met in Tooele UT, we were closer to the Salt Lake than I had ever been before, so I convinced the group to check it out. As we approached the lake we all noticed a real stink in the air. When we got to the beach we were greeted by a few billion little black flies (brine flies) and a kind of gross green/orange algae along the waters edge, it was lovely as I am sure you can imagine. Since none of us really wanted to hang out on the beach we headed out into the lake, the water was surprisingly warm and shallow. It took us at least 100 yards before the kids got up to their waists, most of them did not last long since the concentrated salt water did not agree with there most tender parts. Mason managed to get his eyes wet but after a good cry he was ready for more, he was really fascinated with the fact that he could float so easily and he was enjoying just bobbing around. A breeze came across the water and we started to get pelted with those tiny flies that seemed to be everywhere, it felt like it was raining bugs. The rest of the group had already made there way back toward the cars so Tara and I drug Mason in so the others would not have to wait. Just as we were coming out of the water I noticed that what I thought was a large sand bar was actually a large pile of bird dung, the salt water must preserve it and the water washed it up on the beach in a sand bar like formation, unfortunately we had to walk over it to get out. We also noticed that as we dried out, our skin and cloths were covered in salt, in fact the towels we used to dry off became stiff with all the salt. We all drove back to the swimming pool as fast as we could to get the nastiness off. On a good note: the salt water seemed to have some healing effect on one of Mason’s toes that has been cut and infected and was having a difficult time healing since the kid will not keep shoes on for anything.
So there you go – If you enjoy stink, bugs in the millions I mean billions, having your “tenders” irritated, stinging eyes, bird dung, and salt residue all over your skin and cloths then the Great Salt Lake is THE PLACE for you.
Here are a few interesting facts Tara discovered after our experience: the concentration of salt is 3% to 29%, the dead sea is 30%, Brigham Young came here for healing purposes, lake effect storms happen 4 or 5 times a year and thus that is the reason Utah has the best snow on earth. One question I had was why after all this time of dilution of fresh water has the Great Salt Lake remained so salty? Well the salt level does fluctuate but because the salt is in the ground it will always remain nearly as dead as the dead sea.