Hello, I recently visited the Great Salt Lake, on Thursday January 22nd, 2026, and I figured I would share what I saw.
If you know me or follow my social media, there is a chance that you already saw my post on my Instagram story, but this was something I felt strongly enough about that I wanted to create a more permanent and in depth reflection of what I saw.
I was up early on the Northern side of SLC, which is a neighborhood I'm not in very often. (Aside from when I see my barber at Stef's place) and its a cool neighborhood. The day prior I had gone on a hike up Neff's canyon, and looking to continue my going-into-nature streak, I decided to go to the Great Salt Lake, because I was a lot closer to it than I usually am, so I drove out west, (I got pulled over on the way, SMH).
When I arrived at the Saltair I took in the scenery, and I quickly noticed that the water was really far away from the Saltair and where I parked my car. I checked out the Saltair, for some reason I thought I heard it was abandoned at some point but it's in pretty good shape, and apparently they do EDM fests out there sometimes, so that's cool.
I kept walking out to the water and I could smell the lake. The last time I was out there was probably when I was in the 3rd or 4th grade on a school field trip, and I remember the lake being really smelly, and I always hear people talking about how stinky it is. It didn't smell as strongly as I remembered it (probably cuz its cold not warm r.n) it was a very subtle, oceany smell, a little bit salty ofc. But the smell was tainted a little bit by the nearby industrial smelter, it was easy to tell which smell was coming from the lake and which was coming from the bad air quality.
As I walked to the shoreline, I noticed a couple of dead birds, I didn't want to freak out about it or anything when I noticed the first couple in the sand that were closer to the original shoreline. At first I thought it was kinda cool because nature n stuff y'know? But when I got to the water it was hard not to be alarmed, because literally lining the shoreline of the lake was dozens and dozens of dead birds, most looked like a duck of some kind, but there were also some seagulls.
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| I didnt have to travel far to find this spot, this is just where I landed after deciding I was gonna walk to the water |
At this point my mood got pretty shitty, because the air quality was bad, and it was a long walk to the water from the Saltair, and when I got there there were so many dead birds it made my stomach upset. I realized I should probably take some pictures of what I saw, so here's some more of those just so you can have as clear of a picture as I did.
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| Picture taken through my binocular lens (North) |
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| Looking North |
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| Looking South (dead bird w the smelter in the background, Saltair on left) |
After snapping a couple of pictures I walked back to the Saltair, and drove home.
Emotionally, I felt like I had mentally checked out for the rest of the day after this had happened and I noticed my mood was worse in the days after seeing the lake. And I think it was because this had really impacted me.
I have been hearing about the lakes worsening health as an ecosystem for years now, I recently wrote my final paper in my Geography class about the poor health of the lake, but I haven't actually seen it. Now having actually experienced the sights, the smells, the general vibe of the area, it felt like I was looking down the barrel of a gun. I realized we're not talking about a potential ecological collapse, we're in the middle of it. If we don't do something NOW, this beautiful and unique ecosystem will turn into an environmental nuclear bomb, if we kill it, it will kill us.
I wanted to write a whole thing on the science of how bad it will all be, but I just recommend you watch this youtube video: (about 10 minutes in he explains the hydrology)
TLDR for da video: Essentially human activity has diverted the water from the rivers that support the lake to the point of leaving the lake in a deficit of water, more water is being diverted than is allowed to make it to the lake. because of this, the lake has shrunk from its historic high in the 1980s to its historic low in 2022. The exposed lake bed contains toxic heavy metals like arsenic and lead, that will then be kicked up and turned into dust storms that will not only hurt our already bad air quality, but it could get so bad to the point that SLC, Ogden, and Provo would all be rendered unlivable, which would be catastrophic for the rest of the state and the region, and also me. Should all of the lake bed be exposed in the event that we completely lose the lake, the dust could blow across the entire Western US, effecting the health of the population and the environments of Colorado, Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, California, Oregon, New Mexico, and it could even blow as far as the great plains and the east coast. BYU Published a study claiming that the lake could dry up within 5 years of its publishing date in 2022 (which would mean the lake would be gone by 2028), but if you recall the following couple winters in 2022 and 2023 both had high snowfall, which allowed the lake to recover some of its water, which has delayed the worst case scenario of it being gone by '28. But our winter this year? Will blind luck keep delaying this? I don't think so.
Visit the lake if you want, it feels like visiting a dying family member. Please do what you can to educate yourself on this issue and make the necessary changes in your life to support our environment 💙
thanks for reading
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