Bonneville Salt Flats

Bonneville Salt Flats

The Bonneville Salt Flats are a 159 square mile (412 km²)[1] salt flat in northwestern Utah. The depth of the salt has been recorded at 6 feet (1.8 m) in many areas. A remnant of the ancient Lake Bonneville of glacial times, the salt flats are now public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. It is the largest of many salt flats located west of Great Salt Lake.

The salt flats are accessible by Interstate 80, just on the eastern border of the casino-resort town of West Wendover, Nevada or 115 miles (185 km) west of Salt Lake City, Utah. Visitors have the option of visiting the flats on the Bonneville Speedway exit or west-bound I-80 travelers have an additional rest area outlook.

The salt flats are perhaps most famous for their use as the Bonneville Speedway for high-speed race cars which have achieved speeds in excess of 600 miles per hour (1000 km/h). Several movies have been filmed at the salt flats, including portions of Independence Day, The Brown Bunny and The World's Fastest Indian.

Each rainfall erases tire marks and flattens the densely-packed salt pan that is inhospitable to plantlife. The area is extremely flat and nearly aligned perfectly with the shape of the Earth, allowing visitors to see the curvature of the planet by producing an optical illusion that makes many of the mountains within the vicinity appear to be floating in the air since their bases are on the other side of the curve and thus out-of-sight.

In 2006 the Stardust spacecraft landed safely on the salt flats; however, in 2004 the Genesis spacecraft crashed into the flats after a failed parachute deployment, damaging the craft.