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Searching for Spiral Jetty

I have lived in Utah for exactly 28 years, 3 months and 25 days.  Until last weekend (28 years, 3 months and 23 days) I had never visited the Spiral Jetty, a piece of earth-art located in the Great Salt Lake.  I had always had a vauge idea that visiting such an oddity would be a good idea, but a few months ago I read this essay about the Jetty and fell in-love with the idea of seeing the spiraling art formation in person.  And then I read the essay Looking for Spiral Jetty, and while I don’t necessarily agree with all of the author’s points, it only made me want to see it myself even more.  (Thanks to Mel for sending the link along in the first place!)  I vowed that as soon as the ice and snow melted a bit I’d head Northwest to see it.  Saturday was the first really nice day Salt Lake has had this year, and I made good use of it!  I was not disappointed, in fact, I was practically giddy as the Jetty emerged from behind the ridge.

(Yes, I’m squinting.  It was really bright, okay?  And after months of no sunshine a cloudless day can turn me completely beady-eyed.)

The Spiral Jetty was created by Robert Smithson in 1970, is 1,500 feet long and the coils are 15 feet wide, stretching into the reddish water of the lake.  Depending on the water level of the lake, it may or may not be submerged, the black rocks crusted in salt and gleaming white in the sun.  On Saturday it was mostly under water, with just a few rocky points peeping above the surface, denoting where the spirals curved inward.

Hiking a little way up the hill offered some excellent views of the buried formation.  It seems like a massive undertaking when you are standing on the thing, and when you see it from a distance it seems so much smaller than I’d imagined.  I didn’t walk the length of the coiling path, I walked until I was more than ankle deep in salt water, took a bunch of photos, and then walked back.

The Jetty is made of black basalt rock and salty earth.  Over the years the rocks have become completely encrusted in salt and glitter like icey geodes in the sun.  (Can you tell I’m obsessed?)

My favorite photo of the day, because apparently I have a thing for attempting long-lost feats of gymnastic skill on salty surfaces.  Once upon a time, when I was 11 years old, I was quite skilled at standing on my hands and even walking on my hands.  I could go for quite a while, hundreds of steps without falling.  But now?  Um, not so much.  Perhaps this means I should get back into a yoga class?  (Probably.)

The water near the Jetty is a reddish color, I think due to decaying brine shrimp, a miniscule little bony thing native to the Great Salt Lake.  The colors–red, blue,  lavender, black and white–are gorgeous and meld into each other in waves and ripples.  It is stunning.  The rest of the area, Rozel Point, has some equally impressive and beautiful views.  Colors were muted, the sand and decaying pier are covered in layers of salt, and due to being situated on a natural oil ooze there are little puddles of shiny black slick oozing up from the sand.  It’s a fascinating contrast.

(Editor’s Note:  For the last few weeks I’ve been taking a photography class to learn how to use my fancy new SLR camera.  I’m still a total beginner, and I keep getting Aperture and ISO mixed up and have a little cheat-sheet packed in my camera bag to keep me straight.  But I am quite pleased with how these pics turned out.  For the rest of my pictures of the Spiral Jetty and Rozel Point click here.)

If You Go:

• Print out driving directions here. (The gravel road is well maintained, you don’t really need high clearance or 4WD.)
• Give yourself a good chunk of the day, it is 2-hours from Salt Lake City to the Jetty, and you’ll probably want to stay a little while, absorbing the scene.
• Bring a camera.
• Pack sunscreen.  And bug spray (seriously, bring bug spray).
• The Jetty is sitting on top of some natural oil seeps, and if you aren’t super careful (or even if you are super careful) you can easily get some tar-like black gunk on your shoes, or your hand, or whatever.  Baby wipes (or, in my case, Armor-all Auto Wipes) and a bit of elbow grease should take those right off.
• You will pass the Golden Spike National Historic Site, it’s worth stopping to use the restrooms and see the old-timey trains.

Edited to Add:

6/8/2011: The Great Salt Lake has already risen more than 5 feet this year due to enormous snowfall and excessive spring rain.  This explains the submerged Jetty. (Click here for a comparison between this year and last year)

6/8/2011: There is going to be somewhat of a kerfuffle over the ownership/administration of the Jetty in the coming months, check it out.

7/21/2011: Negotiations between Utah and New York officials begin today on the fate of the Jetty. (That link includes a photo that shows the Spiral Jetty is mostly submerged in water. Kind of crazy.)

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