Great Salt Lake

Why should it be a National Park?

Utah has some of the most recognizable scenery in the country, from the red cliffs of Zion to the hoodoos of Bryce Canyon, and the myriad natural formations at Arches. Each is an iconic American landscape that gives us an immediate feeling of pride and recognition for our natural surroundings. Many places in Utah are similarly popular and impressive, but none is more unusual and grand than the most famous saltwater lake in the western hemisphere.

If we could go back before the colonization of North America and look at this natural landscape, several sites would have been obvious to preserve. Many of these have become the National Parks we know and love. However, places like the Great Salt Lake and neighboring Bonneville Salt Flats are natural wonders that haven't been counted among the places we identify as worth honoring and preserving. The Great Basin region, where both sites are located, holds some of the most alien environments on this continent. The desolate waters and salt pans that blanket the region create a seemingly lifeless expanse.

The Great Basin derives its name because of all water within the region that has no natural outlet to oceans. The Great Salt Lake, covering roughly 1,700-square-miles in Northern Utah, has major tributaries; the Jordan, Weber, and Bear Rivers, flowing into it which have no means of escape except evaporation. Thus, leaving millions of tons of minerals and salt as its defining quality and giving the lake its name. The salinity of the lake often draws comparisons to the Dead Sea because swimmers can float with relative ease.

Due to its shallowness, the water level can fall and rise dramatically depending on precipitation, hence the region's prolonged drought and wet periods. The fluctuation causes several islands to rise and sink, but 11 permanent islands populate the lake year-round. Most prominent among them is Antelope Island State Park, which offers easy access to the lake's best features.

The Bonneville Salt Flats are adjacent to the lake in what's called the Great Salt Lake Desert. The Salt Flats are known for their vast, bleached white appearance, which becomes a thin mirror-like lake after rare rainfall. Most of the 40-square-miles of the salt flats are open and expansive, with little to no activity. Because of the size and scale of the flat terrain, it's an ideal place for experimental vehicles attempting to set new land-speed records as well as alien landscapes for film productions.

Great Salt Lake was considered for National Park status in 1960. Congressional hearings were held, but ultimately the proposal failed.