Golden Spike and Spiral Jetty

Sunday
The sun was back today, for our last day in Utah, and we had another fascinating day. Our first destination was Golden Spike National Historic Site at Promontory Summit, north of the Great Salt Lake, about a 90 minute drive.
It commemorates the completion of the first Transcontinental Railroad, where the Central Pacific Railroad coming from Sacramento and the first Union Pacific Railroad, coming from Omaha Nebraska, met on May 10, 1869. The final joining of the rails spanning the continent was celebrated by the driving of the ceremonial Golden Spike. The railroad no longer goes through this spot, as thirty five years later, in 1904, the Southern Pacific Railroad created a shorter route of lesser grade and curvature directly across the lake, on a causeway. Called the Lucin Cutoff, it reduced the distance of the railway by 42 miles. However they have rebuilt a few miles of track and exact replicas of the locomotives, and during summer months, they have reenactments of the Golden Spike ceremony. We went to the visitor centre, where they run a film about the building of the railroad and the ceremony. We were also able to see the impressive looking locomotives in the shed, where they are kept and worked on during the winter. There are also a couple of auto tours and a walk, pointing out various features, such as the Big Fill, an embankment crossing a ravine, and the site of a former wooden trestle.
From there, we drove another 25 minutes or so on a gravel road to the edge of the Great Salt Lake, to see Spiral Jetty (centre left), an earthwork sculpture constructed in April 1970 that is considered to be the most important work of American sculptor Robert Smithson. Smithson unfortunately was killed in a plane crash just three years later in Amarillo Texas, while surveying land for another art installation. Because of the shallow nature of the Great Salt Lake it’s area can vary greatly, depending on rainfall, and temperatures, and so the Spiral Jetty can at times be submerged. The sculpture is built of mud, precipitated salt crystals, and basalt rocks taken from the adjacent hill sides and forms a 1,500-foot-long, 15-foot-wide counterclockwise coil jutting from the shore of the lake. The sculpture lay submerged for many of its early years, however since the early 2000s after a number of drought years, the lake level dropped, leaving Spiral Jetty visible for the first prolonged time in its history. Having walked to the center of the coil, we then walked to the edge of the lake, over the significant salt deposits, as you can see in the bottom left. The northern arm of the lake, north of the railway causeway, is significantly saltier than the southern arm as the only significant rivers carrying fresh water into the lake flow into the southern arm. There is no outlet from either arm, so water is lost from the lake chiefly due to evaporation, leaving behind the salt deposits. It’s a really weird setting - you almost feel as if you’re on a different planet!
As we began our journey home, the sun was setting, casting a pink glow over the snow-capped mountains - a beautiful sight.