Great Salt Lake

The Great Salt Lake, half an hour's drive northwest of Salt Lake City, is the largest inland lake west of the Mississippi, 72mi/116km long, 34mi/54km wide and up to 50ft/15m deep. It is a remnant of a much larger freshwater lake, Lake Bonneville. Following a fall in the water table this was left with no outlet and shrank as a result of evaporation, leaving the Great Salt Lake Desert. The combination of evaporation with the inflow of surface waters rich in minerals led the salt content of the lake to rise steadily, and at one stage it reached 27% (eight times as high as the world's oceans). In the last few years the water level of the lake has risen as a result of heavy rainfall in the surrounding mountains. At the south end of the lake are bathing beaches and a recreation park (boat hire).

Like the Dead Sea in Israel, Great Salt Lake is salty enough to allow bathers to float without sinking.