Yes, people really do swim (or float) in the lake. It’s gross; I wouldn’t do it in a million years.
Almost no one goes waterskiing on the Great Salt Lake. For one thing, the high salt content is highly corrosive to watercraft. Secondly, the salt content makes the water more dense, so wiping out at 30 mph would be painful. Thirdly, the lake stinks (well, not always, but often enough). Fourthly, there are tons of clean freshwater reservoirs where you can go waterskiing that aren’t that far away. It’s like taking a bath in the toilet instead of the bathtub next to it.
I did it when I was a kid. It was interesting, in that you can have your head and feet out of the water at the same time. And you come out completely plastered in salt.
In short, it’s a good physics lesson, but overall not a pleasurable experience.
I hope this is okay to reopen - we just got back and I thought I should report.
Big Cottonwood Canyon is absolutely gorgeous. It was really funny, though - I asked Mr. iPhone where it was, and it took us to a certain point and then dumped us in a dead-end neighborhood. I asked a man walking his dog where to go, and he looked at me like I was kind of crazy and told me to go up, take a right, the canyon would be on our left.
So we drove for ages through this gorgeous mountain scenery looking for a sign for some overlook or something before we realized, hey. Maybe this is a canyon. You know, this gigantic land feature with all the blazing yellow cottonwood trees in it.
We did Antelope Island and saw all the bison and such, and of course the lake. You go and say, “yes, that is a very great salt lake”, but you really couldn’t go and not go gawk at it, you know? And it’s very weird and quite beautiful, although it does smell.
Did Temple Square, caught an organ recital and a choir rehearsal. The rehearsal was fascinating - I’ve sung in choirs before and had picky directors, of course, who’d stop the whole thing every few seconds. But they were amazing - like turning on a CD every time he started them up - and two seconds later he’d stop to bitch at them. Their big conference was this weekend, and Saturday night we saw more young men in white shirts than I’ve probably seen in my whole life put together previously. Their conference center has, no lie, the cleanest bathrooms I have ever had the privilege to visit. If converting gets you that kind of bathroom, I’d consider it.
