Does anyone here know what the salt flats are like this time of year? I’m going to be up in the area in a couple of weeks, and I hear that they flood during the winter. Are they terribly flooded, is vehicle access impossible? Is the entire area completely wet or are part of the flats dry?
I doubt if the flats are flooded this winter since it has hardly snowed at all and the temperature hasn’t broken freezing for most of the last month. Much of the salt flats are impassible mud that will mire the average vehicle up to the axles most of the year.
There’s a page about the raceway here and a nice satelite photo from the Wendover side here.
Right now most of the Salt flats are under an inch of fresh snow.
Ok, I ill create the ultimate Doper faux pas and invent one of those pointless questions.
“What do they put on the Bonneville Salt Flats when they want to melt the snow so that they can race?”
Now I feel like i should drive 50 miles out just to see if last night’s snow all melted or if any of it stayed on the ground.
How much of the flats are visible from the paved road? Do they start literally right off the road, or do you have to off-road it for a bit to get to them?
The racetrack itself is several miles off the road. All you’ll see of it from I-80 is a fuel depot at the exit. However, I-80 goes through miles and miles of salt flats west of Salt Lake. There are several rest stops where you can get out and collect salt crystals; or you can just pull off anywhere, and add to the vast assortment of mired vehicle ruts. Unfortunately, there’s no stopping allowed at the giant Dictyostelium statue. I drove through the area about a month ago, and the lake itself is very low.
Check out the satellite photo in post #2. I-80 goes right across the flats between Grantsville & Wendover. The highway goes literally across the middle of the salt flats. If you drive out, there’s a rest stop about 2/3 -3/4 of the way to Wendover with a steel tree sculpture. Nice place for a photo.
[edit]And I see that Squink beat me to it. I haven’t been out to Wendover for a year & a half and don’t know if the rest stop with the steel tree was open then or not. [/edit]
I forgot about Wendover:
Where the Enola Gay trained before its secret atomic mission to Japan
Where Nikola Tesla Built One of His Larger Broadcast Power Towers
I’ve never visited the old airbase, but Wendover is always halfway between here and there for me. There are some nice cave riddled cliffs just outside of town that are worth a look. Before I-80 was built, the old hiway had a gas station/eatery built just under them, and you could hop out of the car for a climb. Unlike the old Burma shave signs on the salt flats, the ruins of the station are still there.
Two of my fellow workers and I went to Salt Lake City in December of '02 to take a week long class. We got there a couple of days early and wanted to see the sights. Looking at a map, we saw Bonneville, and one of the guys being a big race fan, we drove out there.
For nearly three hours.
So we get to the Nevada line, and see the “Bonnevile, this way” sign. After driving for another ten minutes, we arrive at a cul-de-sac with a sign. Surrounded by water. Very salty water (yes, I tasted it, just to make sure). Yep, there’s a racetrack out there. You just can’t see it.
Bought some beverages in the bustling metropolis of Wendover, and drove back to Salt Lake City.
Yet another in a long list of things I’ve done that I don’t think I’d ever do again.
I’ll add to your Doper faux pas and invent a pointless answer.
Dry lakes are great for speed trials because they’re a flat, dry, packed surface once the water dries up. To melt the snow and dry it, they run a giant heat lamp over the surface once a day. They increase the intensity of the heat through the summer, and by August the salt is usually packed and dry.
High winds help, too. The lakebeds at Edwards AFB are wet lakes during the rainy season. But the combination of high winds sloshing the water around and hot sun during the summer make them great for landing airplanes on.
How can you tell? 