Great Salt Lake and Salt Lake City

The temp yesterday did not reach 87 as predicted and only made it to 85. The weather man on the news last night was going on about how hot it was even through a record was not broken. We thought to ourselves that these folks need to take a trip south if they want to experience hot. We thought the weather was very nice at 85 with a humidity of about 30%.

We first went out to the Great Salt Lake, the largest natural lake west of the Mississippi River. The sky was hazy making photography disappointing but we took some photos anyway. Here is a panoramic of the lake from the south.

Great Salt Lake from the south

The lake has no output and only input from rivers flowing into it. The water level remains within an average of 4200 feet above sea level via evaporation. As the water evaporates is leaves behind salt and other minerals. The Great Salt Lake is one of the saltiest bodies of water on earth and is four to eight times saltier than the ocean. Areas of the lake are as high as 25% salt. There are no fish in the lake and the only organisms that can tolerate the high salt content are brine shrimp. Birds gorge themselves on the abundance of brine shrimp and brine flies. The lake has been popular since the mid 1800's for sailing and swimming and due to the high salt content a swimmer can float with little or no effort.

After visiting the lake we drove around Salt Lake City and by chance discovered Ensign Peak Nature Park high up behind the city. The following panoramic shot will give you a taste of the view but in no way does justice to the vista.

View from Ensign Peak Nature Park

The next photo is a zoomed in view of the downtown area. Notice the long straight highway that terminates at the capitol building. That is State Street and looks like it was drawn with a ruler.

Downtown Salt Lake City

The Utah State Capitol Building is an impressive building that was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. In 2004 a renovation of the building added a base isolation system to the foundation that allows the structure to survive as much as a 7.3 magnitude earthquake.

Front of Utah State Capitol

Some lucky folks live up near Ensign Peak but I don't envy them getting up or down the hills in the winter. Here is another photo from the park showing a few of the houses.