Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay
Trip Start
May 09, 2009
1
20
22
Trip End
May 29, 2009
Pendleton,
Oregon,
United States
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Watching the tide roll away.
Ooo, I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay,
Wastin' time.
(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay ~ Otis Redding and Steve Cropper
OK, so there's no tide in the Great Salt Lake.
We made a late start leaving Salt Lake City. Getting stuck in the morning commuter rush didn't help. We finally pulled over in Brigham City for breakfast, and stopped in at Bert's Cafe where our young waitress Maddie bore a striking resemblance in looks and manners to a friend of ours Adrienne. On the way out of town my interest was piqued by signs for the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. We drove out to the visitors center and later slowly drove the three mile loop through the refuge as we watched waterfowl and other birds from the car windows. It was quite relaxing listening to the various birds as we drove by, and it would have been nice to sit and observe them for a while.
Jane had mentioned possibly visiting the Spiral Jetty, an earthwork by Robert Smithson on the shores of the Great Salt Lake. The installation sits out on Point Rozel, approximately ten miles down a rough gravel road past the Golden Spike National Historic Site, which itself it more than 30 miles west of Brigham City. We gambled the jetty would be visible - sometimes the water level of the lake is high enough to obscure it - and drove the miles out past Promontory Point. The directions noted to park near an old trailer and wrecked Dodge since the remaining half mile wasn't recommended for 2WD vehicles. The junk was cleaned up and we finally realized before bottoming out we shouldn't proceed any further with our car.
The jetty itself was interesting to see in person rather in art texts. The water was low enough we could walk on the sand around the jetty. Nearly forty years of aging has built up crusts of sand and salt along the edges of the basalt rock. Much of the sand had a thin layer of crystallized salt which sparkled as we walked around the jetty. The Oquirrh Mountains reflected in the reddish water of the lake, and provided a nice backdrop. The rainy skies of the days prior had disappeared. Several flocks of pelicans flew overheard. It was nice to just contemplate the peacefulness of the scene.
We laughed that after being foiled by the weather to access some remote canyons for hiking, the roughest road we had actually driven in Utah was the road to a modern art installation. After making it back to civilization, we finally headed towards Pendleton, Oregon, much later than we had planned.
