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Day 18: Fri Aug 8, 1997

 I read chapter 41 of the book Desire of Ages, very interesting. Then I fired up the laptop and tried again to download my IDL routines. After a couple false starts I finally got the library. I then switched out the second battery and put in the CD-ROM drive and installed the copy of IDL I picked up in Boulder. I used the copy Zoe gave me there. Got the path to my library set and it worked. Only checked a very few of the over 400 routines I have in my library. Some worked, some had problems, I'll track them down. I also grabbed a few ocean temperature images from our web site back at the lab so I could develop software to work with them when I can. Sharleen soaked in the big tub while I worked on the computer.

[This part is being written in the car while driving through the Basin and Range Province south of Wendover, UT. On our left (east) flat land stretches off into the distance, part of it is the famous Bonneville Salt Flats. A range is on our right. It was cloudy with hanging curtains of rain but we have just entered a sunny area with lots of blue sky so it is now harder to see the screen.]

We packed most things into the car, then walked over to the lobby one last time while the computer second battery topped off its charge. Then we went back, grabbed the computer, and checked out. We headed for the address of a restaurant found on the web. It was no longer there, that address was now an Indian place. We parked the car near the City and County Building and walked around looking for a good place to eat. Didn't find one, so we went to the mall. First we checked on getting the film done but didn't find a suitable place so we skipped that and ate at a Greek place.

Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Utah

Then we walked across the street to the Temple Square where the Mormon temple and other buildings are located. The temple has a gold covered statue of Moroni on top. We got on a tour (only about 6 people or so) and were shown various monuments and buildings. The tour was led by two young ladies who were putting in their 18 months missionary time. We saw the building where the choir sings and the big pipe organ there.

Besides the temple and tabernacle, Temple Square contains other monuments, flower beds, and visitor centers. The main visitor center contains a rotunda with a spiral ramp leading to a painted dome with a statue of Christ.

When the tour was over we walked back to the mall and bought a map of Nevada. It was the new DeLorme map, much better then the old ones, it shows shading for the relief as well as contours and is set up for GPS (Global Positioning Satellite system). This got us a stamp worth 2 hours for our parking ticket [we are on page 41 of that map right now, crossing Antelope Valley. There are almost no cars on this road].

Great Salt Lake

We found I-80 and headed west. To see Great Salt Lake we stopped at place called Saltair. First thing we noticed was the bad smell, like a sewer. The place was a big building with yellow onion shaped domes and an old battered river boat type thing in a slimey smelly pond in front. The place seemed to be well past its peak. The inside was pretty much open with a few small gift shop type areas. We walked through and out the other side to get to the water. I thought there might be a beach, I thought we were at the state park but that was down a side road a couple miles and from somebody that had just been there it was even worse. In front of us stretched a short causeway out into the lake. We walked out, it smelled slightly better. Noticed what looked a bit like gray scum on the edge of the water at one point, turned out to be some kind of little flying bugs, like fruit flies almost. They were all along the water's edge and walking through them would stir them up but they didn't seem to go much higher than your knees. On the downwind side of the causeway the water appears reasonably clean, not clear, it was murky. But on the upwind side it was very scummy, not exactly scummy, it was in the water. A bit too nasty looking to feel, especially with all the little flying bugs which would perhaps clog your lungs if you got a good wiff of them. On the rocks and at the edge of the water they look like a gray powder. A few people were out in the water, I missed a picture of somebody floating. This is supposed to be the second saltiest body of water in the world, after the Dead Sea, and salt makes you float easier since it makes the water denser. Something very interesting was visible on the sides of the surrounding mountains, wave cut terraces far above the current water level appearing much like roads running level along the mountain sides (it's not a good picture of this). These lines were formed when the lake level was much higher, forming a giant lake covering much of western Utah and extending a bit into surrounding states. This large extinct lake is known as Lake Bonneville (from Robert Ford's virtual field trip web page). It's long gone but not forgotten.

Bonneville Salt Flats

We headed west again and could see large mounds of white salt, lake water is diverted into evaporation ponds, then bulldozed into mounds. The Morton Salt symbol was visible on one such facility. We passed through the Great Salt Lake desert, it had shrubs at first but then became completely barren, with a sandy colored smooth surface. The road was on a builtup causeway and all along it, just out a short distance, were peoples names written using dark stones from the causeway. Some were written using bottles, lots of bottles were available along the edge of the road. There was almost never more than a few hundred feet between the stone graffiti.

As we continued west the sand colored surface became white and sparkly, it was covered with salt. This was the famous Bonneville Salt Flats. We stopped at a rest area located in the salt flats. It had a covered parking area, I'm sure it's appreciated in the middle of hot days. There was an elevated viewing platform and a spigot for washing your feet after walking out on the salt. We did walk out a ways. The surface is white, like snow. It is covered with small round balls, almost like sleet, but whiter. There was a small pond of water right at the edge of the salt, but the rest of the salt was hard as we walked on it. It sticks to your shoes but doesn't leave tracks. Somebody had dug a small hole out a ways and when I looked in there was water down in it about 4 inches. We took pictures and went back and rinsed the salt off our shoes.

A satellite image shows the Great Salt Lake Desert as a lighter area southwest of Salt Lake. The salt flats show as bright yellow in this color combination, an arrow shows the approximate position of the rest stop. In the first picture above, note that the right edge of the mountain appears to be floating due to a mirage.

We drove the few miles into Wendover, right on the Nevada border. We got a motel and then went to the Laundromat. While Sharleen did laundry I walked over to a nearby Casino to see if there was anything there we could eat. The Laundromat was part of an RV park and I walked through RV parking areas (no trees, just places to park), up some steps, and through a dark, not quite deserted parking garage, following a striped pathway. It led to a stairway, so I went up one flight, and out into a drive. The casino is under construction so appears pretty well deserted, but it's not really. I saw some people drifting toward the building, followed along, went inside, up some steps, and found myself in a very active casino with lots of people playing slot machines, lots of flashing lights, lots of smoke, and lots of sounds. It was a very big room. I must have overheard some comment, I followed along with a small group and wound through long long deserted hallways and into a bar, finally to a restaurant. There was a short line and I talked to a poker player as we waited to get in. When I finally got in I asked if they had anything vegetarians could eat, they said take a look, so I did. There was something we could eat. I made my way back to the Laundromat and waited. There was a nice flower bed just outside, with what looked like petunias, funnel shaped. What at first appeared to be a small humming bird was visiting them. Turned out to be a large moth, but it flew like a humming bird, it would hover over a flower and then sip nectar from it. I sat on the sidewalk and 4 or 5 of the moths flew right in front of me, they were quite tame. They didn't stop buzzing their wings but would hover in front of a flower. I thought one had a drop of nectar on its beak, but it was its long drinking tube rolled up. It extended it and stuck it into a flower. It would then move to another flower. They were quiet except when their wings touched a flower which gave a faint buzzing sound. Later one got inside the laundromat and the manager and I chased it around, I was trying to chase it outside (the doors were open) before the manager smashed it with his flyswatter. He finally did swat it, pretty hard, knocked it on the floor. I picked it up and it took off again. Then I didn't see it and he said "there it is". I said "where?", "on your pants". It was on my leg, so I put my hand over it and took it outside. It flew off. Finally when the wash was done I took Sharleen over to the casino to eat. She was amazed by the place. We returned to our motel, it was no Little America, but we did sleep quite well (and long). I was too tired to write up the web page so I'm doing it now [we just passed through McGill, NV].

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