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Quick Details:
Length: I didn’t think to turn my app on but it was far. Maybe a football field out.
Trail Type: Out and back.
Difficulty: DR3. It’s a sandy beach, with some mudding and wading.
Elevation Gain: Maybe about 15 feet down a little embankment.
Restroom: Yes the visitor center has one.
Dogs? Possibly normaly, but I don't think they would be allowed out to the mounds.
Other Info: Fee Area. $5.00 per car. They do guided tours on the hour and half hour between 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM on weekends, well at least last weekend. Check their facebook page to see if additional tours are being offered. Bring waterproof boots or waders. You will be in about 6-8 inches of water, and will be walking through GSL muck. My winter boots are about 8” tall and I stayed dry, but the water can fluctuate. Most importantly, do not touch the fragile formations! Trying to take a sample home will do you no good as it will disintegrate very quickly so there is no point in ruining it for other people.
To Get Here:
Head east on i80 to exit 104. Turn right off the exit towards Saltair, and then immediately left (following the signs for the Great Salt Lake State Park and Marina). Follow that to the end. Pay your park fee’s and head to the Visitor Center at the northeast corner of the parking lot.
The weather wasn’t looking good for either weekend day, so I just figured we’d go for it. Heading out west on i80 (Passenger Seat Photography (PSP)).
The Kennecott Smelter Stack from the GSL State Park access road (PSP).
The visitor Center at the north east corner of the parking lot.
The Smelter Stack from the parking lot. This is the tallest free-standing structure west of the Mississippi. It is almost as tall as the Empire State Building. It is the 4th tallest smokestack, and the 43rd tallest free standing structure in the world! It is so big it can bee seen from pretty much anywhere in the Salt Lake Valley.
The formations from the Visitor Center. You can see Saltair in the background too.
Well, now all we had to do was wait for the tour to start. I am a little surprised I didn’t take any pictures in the visitor center, but I guess I was just on a one track mind wanting to see the formations haha.
The Trail:
At 4:00 PM the last tour departed the visitor center. Here is a zoomed out picture so you can see it’s not a far walk at all.
Oh, this is called Silver Sands Beach. This also shows the short descent onto the beach.
Our group was the smallest they had all day. It was about 15-20 people.
You can kind of see it here, but there is a very shallow stream you have to cross.
The 2 easternmost mounds.
The 2 westernmost ones.
Quick panoramic showing all 4 of them.
The closest one is the most fascinating, and the most active. You can reach this one without wading, just a little bit of mud and muck to get to it.
Really neat terraces.
The top of the spring. It’s crazy that this is a type of salt that is creating these formations.
It is just the coolest!
They knew there was a layer of mirabilite under the shores here since 1930. It's about 30 inches down and about 3-6 feet thick. We had a very high water table year, so the freshwater springs are dissolving through that and bringing it to the surface. The next element that is the key to all of this happening is that it has been near freezing for a while, which is allowing the mirabilite to freeze and make these crystal formations. Mirabilite, also known as Glaubers Salt is a type of salt, but definitely different from table salt.
There are some neat crystal formations on the other side. I will get some better pictures of those later.
The top of the mound where the water is coming up.
It’s crazy to think that if it gets just a little bit warmer, this will all turn into a fine powder.
The ranger who discovered them was giving a lot of fascinating information, but I wanted to explore the other mounds.
I kind of weep for mankind that they feel like they need to have a ranger watching over each mound. Like it’s not enough to repeatedly say don’t touch, they have to ensure that people don’t touch. I mean, it’s good so that they are ensuring that everybody will get to see them for as long as they last, but just kind of sad that we all know, there will always be that one jerk who ruins it for the rest of us.
The next mound to the west is probably the 2nd neatest one. So, the 2 in the middle are the best. This one did require wading through the water to get to it.
The furthest west mound is the smallest of the 4. It also requires a bit of wading.
At the time I thought there were multiple springs, but from the website, it appears that they think the spring eventually clogs, and just finds a new way up.
This one is cool though in that it shows what the mirabilite crystals look like when they dry out and become the powdery thenardite (right side).
Cool crystal formations. The longer thinner ones are formed when it is colder and the crystal formed quicker with evaporation.
They look like little mini volcanoes! It also reminded me of another cool feature located clear on the other side of the Great Salt Lake, the Tar Seeps along Straight Jetty.
These shorter, fatter crystals form more slowly. This kind of kills the moving spring idea, as this appears to be flowing currently as well as the first mound. Hrm.
The back of the westernmost mound.
Back to the 2nd from westernmost mound. This one is cool in that it has been undercut by the lake so it kind of hovers over it. Smelter Stack in the background.
The top of it.
The furthest east mound. This one is probably the least interesting one, other than it has also been undercut by the lake. It also requires some wading.
Least interesting, but still cool.
Amazing crystal formations.
Showing the undercut.
Some of the terraces on this mound.
From the back side.
Back to the front one, or the 2nd from easternmost.
The amazing terraces.
The water coming down from the top.
Some of the rapidly cooling crystals.
More terraces.
The terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs for comparison. It’s crazy that a cold water spring would produce similar shapes.
The mound again. I would say it is about 3 feet tall or so. That is pretty impressive.
While here I managed to asked the ranger, who discovered these back in October, when she realized she might have discovered something special was. She said this end of the lake doesn’t have very much salt, so while doing a beach tour seeing salt was somewhat different. Then as she was doing additional tours she noticed the salt seemed to be getting bigger, which as she said, is not normal. Minerals don’t just get bigger. So she started documenting it, and eventually got some experts involved to figure out what exactly is going on here. I thought that was really interesting and wow, very observant on her part!
Saltair off in the distance.
Looking back towards the Visitor Center.
Back to the 2nd from westernmost mound.
Waves under the mound.
From the other side.
This one looked to me like it maybe had 2 or 3 springs on it. They said they weren't sure, but did say this one was bigger up until a day or 2 ago and has been damaged by the weather.
More of the formations.
Back to the westernmost one with the great ice crystals.
A little closer. It looks somewhat similar to hoarfrost which I have seen near Ogden and a couple other places.
Hoarfrost, from our Ogden BST Trip.
The entire mound again.
The smelter stack again.
The mist surrounding Antelope Island finally broke enough to actually see it.
Back down to the easternmost one, showing how much the lake has undercut it.
Antelope Island again.
Stansbury Island.
Panoramic showing both, and the 2 westernmost mounds.
The 2nd to easternmost mound and the smelter stack.
From the other side.
As fascinating as this all is, it was time to pry myself away and head on back.
Looking back at all 4 formations.
Little jetty. I wasn’t quite sure if those were rocks or birds on it. It was rocks.
Mist on the mountain.
The bizarre shores of the Great Salt Lake. The giant shallow lake can produce some weird shorelines. You can experience more of this by doing the nearby Lee Creek trail.
The smelter stack again.
The little creek we had to cross. If it has a name, I can’t locate it. It’s either another spring, or possibly overflow from the ponds on the other side of i80.
We took the opportunity to wash our boots off.
Again.
We walked down to the little jetty and discovered a whole mess of cairns. Alrighty then.
One of the many signs reminding you not to collect anything.
The bizarre lake shore, the mirabilite mounds, and Saltair.
The smelter stack again.
Some info about it.
Saltair (PSP).
You know we just call it Saltair, but it is actually Saltair III. The original Saltair , completed in 1893 was designed by Richard K.A. Kletting for whom Kletting Peak near Ruth Lake is named. It burned down in 1925. Saltair II was built at about the same location shortly after, but was not as successful due to numerous reasons, including the Great Depression. It burned down in 1970. The current, Saltair III was completed in 1981 which promptly flooded. Not long after opening the lake levels receded to about where they are now and the unique charm it once held was not there and they just could not compete with the larger and closer venues. in 2005 people involved in the music industry pooled together to purchase it and continue to hold regular concerts there. I mean, I hate to say anything is cursed, but that building has not had the best luck. Although, the current music venue does seem to be doing alright.
So, aside from the amazing mirabilite mounds, there are some neat things to see at The Great Salt Lake State Park and Marina. However, I was truly fascinated by the mounds. considering this is the first time seen here, ever, it was amazing to get to see them for myself. Truly an amazing show of nature with a fun scientific side as well. Today's adventure wasn’t really much of a hike, but it was just a cool experience so going with 10 out of 10 squirrels!
As for difficulty, it was pretty easy, beach walking with a shallow creek crossing. There is a steeping stone too for those who didn’t know this was here and only wore sneakers. Wading through the lake wasn’t too bad either.
Dogs.. you know, I don’t know. I would think probably no to reduce the risk of them damaging the formations. I wouldn’t want to be that guy, so even if they are allowed, I would say leave them at home.
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