The roadtrip: Part 3

Denver, Colorado

Day 3 of my cross-country roadtrip adventure began at the Great Salt Lake. Neither Mom nor I had ever seen it before. (A family roadtrip when I was growing up took us to southern Utah, but we missed the northern part of the state that trip.) We were both curious about the lake and decided to check it out while we had the chance. I certainly learned a lot.

Great Salt Lake

The modern-day Great Salt Lake is a small remnant of a much larger body of water, Lake Bonneville, that covered parts of Utah, Idaho, and Nevada earlier in geological time. The modern lake is only 12 feet deep on average but has 4 times the salinity of seawater. It's a terminal lake, meaning it has no outflow, so any trace of salt carried into the lake from the surrouding drainage area gets trapped there as the water evaporates. Because of the high salinity, the only animals in the lake are small crustaceans called brine shrimp. Birds come from all around to feed on the brine shrimp, leading to a diverse and abudant avian community.

Seen in Echo Canyon, Utah

Tourism on the lake has been off and on, with the major facility being destroyed multiple times by fire or flood. Nowadays, the lake is surrounded by mines. It's a very industrial area, with heavy machinery being used to extract salt and copper from the surrounding mountains.

Green rock in Wyoming

After our stop at the lake, we headed east across Utah through ski country and narrow Echo Canyon. The mountains were absolutely beautiful, and the canyon walls were red and extremely steep. The majority of the drive actually took us through southern Wyoming, which was much more diverse than I expected. We drove past rolling hills, ranches, rough cliffs, and smooth knolls. At one point, we passed rocky outcrops that looked green. Very interesting.

We kept climbing altitude in Wyoming and actually crossed the Continental Divide in two places. I kept checking our altitude, and the highest value I ever saw was over 8,600 feet. Mom and I could both notice the effects of the altitude on our cosmetics - for the past few days, every lotion, shampoo, and cleanser has exploded when opened. I even opened a sealed bag of trail mix in the car, and it too was grossly bloated in the low-pressure environment.

At the end of the day, we stopped in Denver, the Mile-High City. We both laughed that even the famous high-altitude city was a steep downhill slide away. Another great day of travel is over!