I soon found myself in an area that had parallel lines on the salt flat reminding me of marks left by airplane landing gear on a runway. Started to walk northeast toward Floating Island. (Most of my pictures in this trip report are zoomed). Distances appeared shorter than they were. Floating Island appeared not too far away and at first glance sounded like a good destination but I had looked at maps the previous night and realized that the island was 17 miles away. To the northeast, the salt flat seemed to stretch into the horizon. Snowy Pilot Peak plus Tetzlaff and Rishel Peaks The much taller and farther away snowy Pilot Peak rose above them. To the northwest, arid desert mountains were 4 miles away. Its noise continued all day even when I got much farther away. To the south, I-80 was only 1.5 miles away. There was no trail and I could go in any direction. Four mile before entering Nevada, I exited the highway, got gas and went on a short road that took me to the very end of it at Bonneville Salt Flats.Ī van seemed to have camped on the salt flats but I did not see any people or cars until the end of my hike when I was back close to my starting place. Flat salt plains appeared all around the road and it slowly became sunny. I had a 160 mile drive but speed limit of 80 MPH on I-80 made it go faster than expected. The road skirted the southern shores of The Great Salt Lake and the northern tips of 3 mountains ranges before getting on a totally flat plain. Drove north to Salt Lake City and then got on I-80 west. Left the hotel in Spanish Fork, Utah around 6:40 a.m. Hiking the Bonneville Salt Flats was an idea that I came up with less than 24 hours before the hike. Originally, I had planned to hike to the summit of West Mountain in Spanish Fork, Utah on this day but the forecast had changed to rain. One could hike for hours and perhaps days on the flat white surface while enjoying views of the surrounding desert mountains. Its beautiful nature in my opinion, makes it an attractive destination for hiking. With its totally flat surface, Bonneville Salt Flats is most famous for auto racing. It is the dried lake bed of Lake Bonneville that covered most of western Utah 32 to 14 thousand years ago. Bonneville Salt Flats is the largest of the salt pans that sit to the west of Utah’s Great Salt Lake.
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