Above Utah's Salt Flats
May 26, 2015
Photographer: Patrick Wiggins
Summary Author: Patrick Wiggins
The photo above was taken from my Cessna 172 as I was headed east over the Bonneville Salt Flats, west of Salt Lake City, Utah. I was flying at 1,000 m above the surface. Below and stretching far out into the distance are the Union Pacific/Southern Pacific railroad tracks and Interstate 80's east and westbound lanes, paralleling the rail tracks. Like Great Salt Lake, the Bonneville Salt Flats is a remnant of prehistoric Lake Bonneville, which drained during the last ice age -- some 15,000 years ago. When I snapped the picture, I was thinking of NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin's description of the Moon: "Magnificent desolation."