Salt Flats in Utah

Talk about thirsty! I was practically drooling when I saw the image of the individuals kayaking down the secluded, calm, turquoise clear-water canal radiating in contrast against the salt crystals. I could practically feel the tranquil, adventurous experience radiate through the screen. I desperately had to experience that moment. So when my boyfriend and I planned our trip to Utah I knew this had to be one of our stops.

We had exactly 5 days to experience Utah, and experience we did! We landed in Las Vegas on Sunday evening, stayed over in St. George, and went to Zion (where he popped the question, and I said yes! Talk about romantic!) and Bryce Canyon National Park on Monday, Tuesday was Canyonlands and Arches National Park, Wednesday we headed to the northwestern section of the state. Utah’s landforms do not disappoint, you literally can’t sleep when on a road trip through Utah because you don’t want to miss what surprise might be just around the corner, the mountains, plateaus, mesas, river-eroded canyons, glacier-eroded canyons, volcanoes, and basins had this Northwest Ohio native in awe. I never knew rocks, geology, and science could be so gorgeous! But I digress. So, it was day three of our adventure and we had a long drive ahead of us that day. We went from Captial Reef Resort to the Salt Flats, roughly just over a 5-hour drive. First, we had to say a proper goodbye to Capital Reef where we had stayed for two nights.

Capital Reef Resort was adorable, out in what felt like the middle of nowhere, with epic views, offered great experiences on site, and unique places to stay including teepees, wagons, cabins, suites, and more!

We said our goodbyes and ventured north to the nearest Walmart, over four hours away! There is literally nothing that we midwesterners are used to out there, food is purchased at the convenience stores and those convenience stores all close at 7pm, including the gas pumps. So, FYI, get any booze you may want outside the state before you arrive, and plan accordingly when it comes to restroom breaks and meals, you are not in Kansas anymore.

After playing the playlist twice, and listening to two podcasts on marriage, swoon! (Remember we just got engaged…he has been married before, in a 5+ years relationship and I was in a 19-year marriage) The good news is we are both tone-deaf, lol! Thankfully we’re both all in when it comes to travel, experiencing new, novel moments, and will drive for miles to have an epic 10-minute experience! As we drove past Salt Lake we knew we were rapidly approaching our next destination, those beautiful canals in the salt flats of Utah!

We literally drove for miles and arrived at our destination, Bonneville Salt Flats. “The Bonneville Salt Flats are one of Earth’s most unique landforms. The salt flats are about 12 miles long and 5 miles wide and are comprised mostly of sodium chloride, or table salt. Located 120 miles west of Salt Lake City in Tooele County, Utah, the salt flats are a 30,000-acre expanse of hard, white salt crust on the western edge of the Great Salt Lake Basin in Utah. Like the Great Salt Lake, the Salt Flats are a remnant of Lake Bonneville, which covered over one-third of Utah from 10,000 to 32,000 years ago. The salt flats are on the National Register of Historic Places, are designated as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern, and are managed as a Special Recreation Management Area.” (source). The flats are used for the world of speed because they are flat, hard, obstacle-free environments to achieve high speeds. After walking on the flats I get it, it is hard, it’s so odd, the brain sees the white and thinks snow but the temperature was 119 degrees, it was such a unique experience.

After walking the salt flats we were quickly in pursuit of the canals. We drove down one side of the expressway turned around and drove back up, the canals had to be somewhere! The first interesting tourist trap we came across, and somehow totally drove past the first time was the “Tree of Life” An abstract artistic sculpture called Metaphor: The Tree of Utah stands on the edge of I-80 on the barren Bonneville Salt Flats west of Salt Lake City. “Swedish artist Karl Momen created the 87-foot-high tree between 1982 and 1986. He financed the project himself to bring bold color and beauty to the stark, flat, salty landscape. The sculpture is made of 225 tons of cement, almost 2,000 ceramic tiles five tons of welding rods, and tons of minerals and rocks native to Utah”. (source)

After perusing the salt flats and seeing the “Tree of Life” we could just feel that we were near the canals. Turns out we weren’t wrong. They drained almost all of them, all but the one we found! We pulled off to the shoulder and took this pic.

I can’t help but assume that during the craziness that was 2020, COVID-19, the “pandemic” when people were doing anything and everything to just feel alive, this is how the epic pic was given birth to the nation. So it turns out that, “The canals near the Bonneville Salt Flats, which first went viral on social media in 2020, have resurfaced yet again as pictures and videos show kayakers and paddle boarders recreating on bright blue waters in the vast desert region. But is there any truth in it? These canals, which were recently highlighted in multiple online articles and have reportedly been drained since they went viral, were a result of wastewater from nearby facilities owned by mining company Intrepid Potash”. (Source).

So, we never got to kayak down the salt flats canals because they do not exist, we learned an early lesson on AI, do your due diligence, and do your research before you travel across the country to peruse a landform that doesn’t exist. Thankfully we didn’t venture far off our itinerary. Our stay was in Salt Lake City Utah. What fun our next destination was! We stayed at Evo Hotels! Talk about a youthful destination. As 40-somethings with 5 children depending on us between the two of us we did not take advantage of the free rock climbing and skateboarding. We highly recommend this “outside the midwesterners box” destination. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay.