SUPing The Great Salt Lake

 After biking the Bonneville Salt Flats, I was on my way to the capital of Utah - Salt Lake City. I've never been to this city before, and was fascinated to visit "Mormon Capital of the World".

Salt Lake City is an attractive, well-planned, architecturally unique town. But as you know me, doing the usual "touristy stuff" is not my way of traveling.

My first stop was the Great Salt Lake, after which the capitol was named ( the city was originally named "Great Salt Lake City"—the word "great" was dropped from the official name in 1868 ).

The lake's turquoise waters attract sailors, its white sand beaches are popular with swimmers and sunbathers, and craggy outcroppings on Antelope Island and some shoreline areas draw hikers and mountain bikers.

The Great Salt Lake is one of the most asked-about tourist destinations in Utah. A remnant of the massive ancient Lake Bonneville, the lake is now landlocked and its waters are salty. It is the largest lake between the Great Lakes and the Pacific Ocean, and is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere.

At least, that's what I read about it when I was doing my research.

Great Salt Lake State Marina provides easy access to the lake from HWY 80, and that's where I came...Long story short, I was...disappointed...the Great Salt Lake was quite GROSS!

The whole place reeks of raw sewage. Decay of insects and other wildlife give the shore of the lake a distinctive odor. I could hardly launch my board, and thought that if I paddled further away from the shore, the water would be cleaner, but even away from the shore it was pretty disgusting.

At that point I wished I opted for visiting Antelope Island,the largest island of 10 islands located within the Great Salt Lake.

View a free-roaming herd of 500 bison, and pronghorn and bighorn sheep that share the rangelands. Hike, mountain bike or horseback ride along backcountry trails for spectacular views of Great Salt Lake and island scenery. Check in at the visitor center for maps and information on the island's unique biology, geology and history.

Sounds to me like I missed out on a whole lot of cool stuff :(

Well, may be next time ...