The Great Salt Lake is lined with dead birds, resting on the salty shore. Some of them only leave skeletons, others are corpses mummified from the outside while their insides have rotted out. Probably pelicans. Coming from the east coast, northern Utah feels ancient. It gives the impression of a place that has been there since always and sees every species as a blink.
Birds are brined on the outside in a thick layer of sand- black and likely just as salty as the rest called basalt. Flies everywhere, but not around the skeletons, which sit as castles long since conquered. They are apex scavengers. Only the sound of flies cuts through. Scattered around are signs of human life; the smoldering remains of campfires, a ruined fender from a dirt bike, and the occasional beer can litter the sand.
A spiral is carved into the ground nearby, an art project at the end of a dusty road with “no trespassing” signs, with ranch names on either side. The spiral has changed colors over the years, reflecting its salt content in various conditions. At the time of its construction, the water surrounding was red and pink from algae, one of the few organic inhabitants of the lake. The hill behind me has a marble podium with no trail leading up to it. It has a spiral carved into the front, mirroring the spiral in the ground. On top, it has an inscription about how the spiral is around 50 years old, a mere nanosecond compared to the age of everything around it but the leftover birds. It feels much older than that. It looks like it belongs. It has a name, and it’s Spiral Jetty. It used to be submerged, drawing a striking figure against the water. Now, through drought, the spiral stands against sand. Only rain can fill it again. The artist died a few years after finishing Spiral Jetty.
I lost cell signal immediately upon hitting this gravel road and resigned myself to the silence. The sun set, and I could see a couple lights dancing in the distance. They struck me as lonely. When night falls, the mosquitoes come and mingle with the flies. I ended up killing them all, as there was nothing, but a numbing silence left as the final glow of the sun got snuffed out behind the horizon.