Salt Lake City, Utah

We settled into our spot at Great Salt Lake State Park for $20.00 a night, which included power, water, and awesome Wi-Fi. Our space is not what you would expect for a state park, we are camped along the shores of Great Salt Lake in one of five RV spots at the marina.

Our spot among a few RV’s and sailboats.

We had a great view of Antelope Island from our site! See tomorrow’s blog.

However for what we are getting for our $20.00 we are not complaining. Great Salt Lake is a remnant of prehistoric Lake Bonneville, which covered more than 20,000 square miles. Today the lake is around 75 miles long and 35 miles wide and averages 13 feet deep, although in areas it can be up to 35 feet deep. It is the largest lake between the Great Lakes and the Pacific Ocean, and is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere.

Four rivers and many streams empty into the Great Salt Lake but the lake has no outlet, which causes a high concentration of salt when the water evaporates. Water evaporates at almost the same rate as water comes into the lake, which allows the lake to remain at 4,200 feet above sea level most of the time. The Dead Sea has a salt level of 33%, north Great Salt Lake has a salt level of 25% and south Great Salt Lake has a salt level of 14%, the ocean only has a salt level of 3.5%.

Fish cannot tolerate the high saline levels in Great Salt Lake but brine shrimp, brine fly larvae, and algae thrive in the lake and provide a good food source for many species of birds.

After lunch we took a drive into Salt Lake City with a population of 191,180 (2013) in the city and 1,153,340 (2014) in the entire metropolitan area. Salt Lake City is Utah’s state capital and is bordered by the Great Salt Lake and the snow-capped peaks of the Wasatch Range.

Pretty impressive building that sits atop a hill overlooking Downtown Salt Lake City.

The State Capital building

Salt Lake City is home to the headquarters of the Mormon Church with is located downtown on the 10-acre Temple Square which is also home to the 19th-century Salt Lake Temple. The well known Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs in the square’s domed Tabernacle. We tried to find a parking spot so that we could walk around Temple Square but didn’t have any luck … perhaps next time. We were able to find a parking spot in front of Salt Lake City’s City Hall, which was also very impressive.

Until next time …