Tweetspeak Poetry

  • Home
  • FREE prompts
  • Earth Song
  • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • Teaching Tools
  • Books, Etc.
  • Patron Love

Bonneville Salt Flats and Salt Lake Park, Utah

By Will Willingham 6 Comments

The shortest distance between two points is supposed to be a straight line. And I suppose that’s important where efficiency is concerned. When I recently drove from the middle of the country to the West Coast, and had a mere three days to do it, efficiency was concerned. But Day 2, the middle leg of the trip,  was the short driving day, with a target of just a little over 500 miles. This afforded me a small measure of flexibility so that when a rest area appeared less than a half hour from the Utah-Nevada border, I took it.

I didn’t need to stop. I’d be able to stretch my legs soon enough when I arrived in Wendover. But I went for the curve, not the straight line.

I’d been fascinated for the last hundred miles since passing the Great Salt Lake with the light covered crust over the soil in the median and beyond the highway shoulder. Occasionally a teenager might have expressed his (or her) love for a darling in a heart shape made of dark clumps of dirt contrasted against the salt-coated earth. It was still daylight on a hot August afternoon. The sky was clear. I pulled off.

bonneville salt flats shore

With my shoes and socks in hand, I crossed the hot salty beach and stepped into the cool water and took in the Silver Island Mountains across the salt flats, a color of blue I’m still not sure actually exists. I took pictures. I knew they wouldn’t do it justice.

Before I went back to the car, I bent down and scooped up a handful of salt crystals from the shallow water, checking around me to make sure I wasn’t going to be arrested for removing part of the landscape. On the way back east a few months later, I toyed with the law again, as the rest stop is not accessible from the eastbound lanes of the highway without making an illegal U-turn. I imagined I’d stretch out my arm toward the mountain ridge and tell the sheriff, “It was worth it. Go ahead and take me in. Every minute I was illegally parked on the shoulder was worth it.” (Actually, I was contemplating how much my insurance rates would go up because of the traffic citation I was sure to get.)

Salt Flats Roadway

As I drove toward Salt Lake City, checking my rearview mirror for the inevitable arrival of law enforcement, I looked out the driver’s window and was certain that the water surrounding the mountains was running just the slightest bit uphill. A sort of salt flats mirage, I told myself, still mildly convinced that the mountains were somehow suspended in air with the shallow water pulling up to their base.

I’d learn later this was likely no mirage. The salt flats in Utah are the result of the drying up of ancient Lake Bonneville in the Pleistocene era, creating this concentration of mineral deposits. With their smooth, flat surface stretching a good 30, 000 acres, this is one of the few places in the world where a person can actually see the curvature of the earth.

There are things in the world, I think, that are so beautiful the human mind doesn’t know what to do with them. Curves can sometimes be that way. The best the mind can figure is that water runs uphill, and the rest—well, the rest we chalk up to optical illusion.

bonneville salt flats utah people

 

Salt Burger at Salt Flats

 

(If you make it to the Bonneville Salt Flats, you may as well make the extra 100 miles east and stop at Salt Lake, itself a massive remnant of Lake Bonneville.)

Salt Lake Park Foam

Salt Lake Behind the Park

Salt Lake Byway with Vegetation

Post and photos by LW Lindquist.

Browse more literary and sightseeing tours

_____________________

Every Day Poems Driftwood
Dip into poetry every weekday morning with a subscription to Every Day Poems and find some beauty in your inbox. 

 

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Will Willingham
Follow Will
Will Willingham
Director of Many Things; Senior Editor, Designer and Illustrator at Tweetspeak Poetry
I used to be a claims adjuster, helping people and insurance companies make sense of loss. Now, I train other folks with ladders and tape measures to go and do likewise. Sometimes, when I’m not scaling small buildings or crunching numbers with my bare hands, I read Keats upside down. My first novel is Adjustments.
Will Willingham
Follow Will
Latest posts by Will Willingham (see all)
  • Earth Song Poem Featured on The Slowdown!—Birds in Home Depot - February 7, 2023
  • The Rapping in the Attic—Happy Holidays Fun Video! - December 21, 2022
  • Video: Earth Song: A Nature Poems Experience—Enchanting! - December 6, 2022

Filed Under: Blog, Literary Tour

Write with Us

About Will Willingham

I used to be a claims adjuster, helping people and insurance companies make sense of loss. Now, I train other folks with ladders and tape measures to go and do likewise. Sometimes, when I’m not scaling small buildings or crunching numbers with my bare hands, I read Keats upside down. My first novel is Adjustments.

Comments

  1. Megan Willome says

    November 26, 2014 at 11:36 am

    That first photo–I thought it was a painting. So real and yet unreal. Now I want to go.

    Happy Thanksgiving, LW!

    Reply
    • Will Willingham says

      November 26, 2014 at 7:21 pm

      Maybe the coolest place I’ve ever accidentally found myself. Had no idea that this would be the view.

      If you go through Utah on US 80, be sure to stop at that rest stop. And take off your shoes. 🙂

      Reply
  2. Maureen Doallas says

    November 26, 2014 at 11:59 am

    Sometimes it’s worth being a renegade. Amazing place.

    Reply
  3. Laura Brown says

    November 27, 2014 at 1:20 pm

    Savory.

    Reply
  4. Marcy Terwilliger says

    November 27, 2014 at 9:34 pm

    Utah, my favorite state, God was in a good mood when he created this one. Been twice, best part is get off that interstate and take the back roads. Bear Lake is there too. Highest Lake in the US with a yellow wild flower that will knock your socks off. The water is aqua blue, you feel like you’ve died and gone to heaven. You have to go through Oden, farms, land, hills, lots of black & white cows to get to it. We always start at one end of the state and drive to the top. Loved the salt lake, walked all the way to the middle & it never got above my knee. Amazing, natural, wonders to experience in that state, ones you’ll never forget.

    Reply
  5. Richard Maxson says

    November 28, 2014 at 9:20 am

    Beautiful photos. I love the sky in the seventh one; it seems to mirror the salty earth you write about.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Cute Comic

😊

The Sadbook Collections

A stick-figure human sure to capture your heart.

Take How to Read a Poem

Get the Introduction, the Billy Collins poem, and Chapter 1

get the sample now

Welcome to Tweetspeak

New to Tweetspeak Poetry? Start here, in The Mischief Café. You're a regular? Check out our May Menu.

Patron Love

❤️

Welcome a little patron love, when you help keep the world poetic.

Your Comments

  • L.L. Barkat on Awe & Wonder Journal
  • L.L. Barkat on The Honey Field—10: Anna’s Heart
  • Laurie Klein on Poems to Listen By: Black Bird Soirée 06—Noah’s Crow
  • Bethany R. on Poems to Listen By: Black Bird Soirée 06—Noah’s Crow

Get Every Day Poems

Featured In

We're happy to have been featured in...

The Huffington Post

The Paris Review

The New York Observer

Tumblr Book News

Stay in Touch With Us

Categories

Coloring Page Poem Printables!

Get all free coloring page poems now

Learn to Write Form Poems

How to Write an Acrostic

How to Write a Ballad

How to Write a Catalog Poem

How to Write a Ghazal

How to Write a Haiku

How to Write an Ode

How to Write a Pantoum

How to Write a Rondeau

How to Write a Sestina

How to Write a Sonnet

How to Write a Villanelle

5 FREE POETRY PROMPTS

Get 5 FREE inbox poetry prompts from the popular book How to Write a Poem

Shakespeare Resources

Poetry Classroom: Sonnet 18

Common Core Picture Poems: Sonnet 73

Sonnet 104 Annotated

Sonnet 116 Annotated

Character Analysis: Romeo and Juliet

Character Analysis: Was Hamlet Sane or Insane?

Why Does Hamlet Wait to Kill the King?

10 Fun Shakespeare Resources

About Shakespeare: Poet and Playwright

Top 10 Shakespeare Sonnets

See all 154 Shakespeare sonnets in our Shakespeare Library!

Explore Work From Black Poets

About Us

  • • A Blessing for Writers
  • • Annual Theme 2022: Perspective
  • • Annual Theme 2021: Generous
  • • Our Story
  • • Meet Our Team
  • • Literary Citizenship
  • • Poet Laura
  • • Poetry for Life: The 5 Vital Approaches
  • • T. S. Poetry Press – All Books
  • • Contact Us

Write With Us

  • • 5 FREE Poetry Prompts-Inbox Delivery
  • • 30 Days to Richer Writing Workshop
  • • Poetry Prompts
  • • Submissions
  • • The Write to Poetry

Read With Us

  • • All Our Books
  • • Book Club
  • • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • • Literacy Extras
  • • Poems to Listen By: Audio Series
  • • Poet-a-Day
  • • Poets and Poems
  • • 50 States Projects
  • • Charlotte Perkins Gilman Poems Library
  • • Edgar Allan Poe Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Blake Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Shakespeare Sonnet Library

Celebrate With Us

  • • Poem on Your Pillow Day
  • • Poetic Earth Month
  • • Poet in a Cupcake Day
  • • Poetry at Work Day
  • • Random Acts of Poetry Day
  • • Take Your Poet to School Week
  • • Take Your Poet to Work Day

Gift Ideas

  • • Every Day Poems
  • • Our Shop
  • • Everybody Loves a Book!

Connect

  • • Donate
  • • Blog Buttons
  • • By Heart
  • • Shop for Tweetspeak Fun Stuff

Copyright © 2023 Tweetspeak Poetry · FAQ, Disclosure & Privacy Policy

We serve poetry with our cookies. Because that's the way it should be.
We serve poetry with your cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you... accept the cookies with a smile.
Do not sell my personal information.
Cookie SettingsAccept
update cookie prefs

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT