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32-606: The Dugway Range extends northwesterly into the south of the Great Salt Lake Desert , the region at the west and southwest of the Great Salt Lake , about three times its area, a region of a flat white, salt flat , flat alluvial plains, and some alluvial mountain range pediments. It is the location of the Bonneville Salt Flats . The 8 mi (13 km) long Granite Mountain lies 4 mi (6 km) north of

64-434: A dry lake bed is itself typically devoid of vegetation, they are commonly ringed by shadscale , saltbrush and other salt-tolerant plants that provide critical winter fodder for livestock and other herbivores . In southwest Idaho and parts of Nevada and Utah there are a number of rare species that occur nowhere else but in the inhospitable environment of seasonally flooded playas. A new species of giant fairy shrimp

96-519: A dry lake may be found in an area ringed by bajadas . Dry lakes are typically formed in semi- arid to arid regions of the world. The largest concentration of dry lakes (nearly 22,000) is in the southern High Plains of Texas and eastern New Mexico . Most dry lakes are small. However, Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia , near Potosí , the largest salt flat in the world, comprises 4,085 square miles (10,582 square km). Many dry lakes contain shallow water during

128-599: A geological phenomenon known as " sailing stones " that leave linear "racetrack" imprints as they slowly move across the surface without human or animal intervention. These rocks have been recently filmed in motion by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego and are due to a perfect coincidence of events. First, the playa has to fill with water, which must be deep enough to form floating ice during winter, but still shallow enough that

160-600: A playa in the Black Rock Desert in western Nevada every year. Fangfang Yao et al (2023), at the University of Virginia reported that more than half of the world's large lakes are drying up. They assessed almost 2,000 large lakes using satellite measurements combined with climate and hydrological models. They found that unsustainable human use, changes in rainfall and run-off, sedimentation, and rising temperatures have driven lake levels down globally, with 53% of lakes showing

192-436: A salt flat is called a sabkha (also spelled sabkhah , subkha or sebkha ) or shott ( chott ). In Central Asia, a similar "cracked mud" salt flat is known as a takyr . In Iran salt flats are called kavir . A dry lake is formed when water from rain or other sources, like intersection with a water table, flows into a dry depression in the landscape, creating a pond or lake. If the total annual evaporation rate exceeds

224-411: A standing surface water body, which disappears when evaporation processes exceed recharge. If the floor of a dry lake is covered by deposits of alkaline compounds, it is known as an alkali flat. If covered with salt, it is known as a salt flat . If its basin is primarily salt , then a dry lake bed is called a salt pan , pan , or salt flat (the latter being a remnant of a salt lake ). Hardpan

256-661: Is a small rock "island", Sapphire Mountain, 4,791 ft (1,460 m), 1.5 mi (2 km) long (571 ft (174 m) prominence). Sapphire Mountain is 2.55 mi (4 km) from the Dugway foothills, and 0.5 mi (1 km) from the Granite Mountain perimeter. By way of unimproved roads, the Dugway Range can be accessed from the west, the region of the Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge at

288-418: Is about 27 mi (43 km) long. The range can also be accessed from the east, northeast, from Dugway , (by Utah State Route 199 and Utah 196 ), on unimproved roads. Dugway is located about 30 mi (48 km) northeast of the Dugway Range. Off-road routes can reach Granite Mountain (Tooele County, Utah) from the range's north terminus; Granite Peak "island" is 4 mi (6 km) distant across

320-543: Is the dry terminus of an internally drained basin in a dry climate, a designation typically used in the Great Basin of the western United States. Another term for dry lake bed is playa . The Spanish word playa ( pronounced [ˈplaʝa] ) literally means "beach". Dry lakes are known by this name in some parts of Mexico and the western United States. This term is used e.g. on the Llano Estacado and other parts of

352-584: The Bonneville Salt Flats . Several small mountain ranges occupy the edges of the desert, such as the Cedar Mountains , Lakeside Mountains, Silver Island Mountains , Hogup Mountains , Grassy Mountains, and Newfoundland Mountains. On the western edge of the desert, just across the border in Nevada, stands Pilot Peak in the Pilot Range . The desert is cool during the winter and includes unusual plants adapted to

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384-450: The Mojave . Due to the high elevation and aridity, temperatures drop sharply after sunset. Summer nights are comfortably cool. Winter highs are generally above freezing, and winter nights are bitterly cold, with temperatures often dropping below freezing. Dry lake A dry lake bed , also known as a playa ( / ˈ p l aɪ - ə / ), is a basin or depression that formerly contained

416-873: The Sierra Nevada . Howard Stansbury explored the desert in 1849. In 1956, I-80 replaced the Wendover Cut-off across the desert, including a straight east-west section for ~50 miles (80 km) between the Cedar Mountains to the east and Wendover on the Utah/Nevada border. Following a railway completed across the desert's Bonneville Salt Flats in 1910, the flats were first used as a speedway in 1914. The world records for highest land speeds are regularly broken here. In July 2022, archaeologists discovered about 88 footprints had been left behind by humans at least 12,000 years ago using ground-penetrating radar (GPR). In

448-633: The salt flat desert . Other routes from the east, the Dugway region, also access Granite Mountain's east region. Great Salt Lake Desert The Great Salt Lake Desert (colloquially referred to as the West Desert ) is a large dry lake in northern Utah , United States, between the Great Salt Lake and the Nevada border. It is a subregion of the larger Great Basin Desert , and noted for white evaporite Lake Bonneville salt deposits including

480-418: The "ghost tracks", as the archaeologists called them, the footprints absorb moisture and are only visible when it rains and disappear when dry. The Great Salt Lake Desert experiences a desert climate with hot summers and cold winters. The desert is an excellent example of a cold desert climate . The desert's elevation, 4,250 feet above sea level, makes temperatures cooler than lower elevation deserts, such as

512-601: The Fish Lakes to the southwest, actual foothills above the Great Salt Lake Desert saltflats exist. Washes converge off the southwest flank; they flow southwest, then converge in a shallow valley, with three washes flowing northwest to the GSLD saltflat. Adjacent southwest is a circular, Black Rock Hills, 5,554 feet (1,693 m), (1,334 ft (407 m) prominence, 5 mi (8 km) diameter), 4 mi (6 km) east of

544-630: The Fish Lakes, and about 8 mi (13 km) due southwest of the Dugway foothills. Northeast of the Dugway Range, and east of Granite Mountain are the GSLD salt flats. They extend halfway southeast, along the range's northeast flank, to meet the outflow terminus at the northwest of Dugway Valley , which itself trends mostly southeast, about 17 mi (27 km). The valley contains Table Mountain Reservoir (0.15 mi (0 km) diameter), located 3 mi (5 km) due-west of Table Mountain, 5,766 ft (1,757 m). Dissected hills and flats border

576-803: The Southern High Plains and is commonly used to address paleolake sediments in the Sahara like Lake Ptolemy . In South America, the usual term for a dry lake bed is salar or salina , Spanish for salt pan . Pan is the term used in most of South Africa. These may include the small round highveld pans, typical of the Chrissiesmeer area, to the extensive pans of the Northern Cape province. Terms used in Australia include salt pans (where evaporite minerals are present) and clay pans . In Arabic,

608-465: The dry conditions. Most of the desert receives less than 8 inches (200 mm) of annual precipitation. The salt crust covering the desert reforms yearly when the rain evaporates. The military's Utah Test and Training Range is in the northern portion of the desert. The lowest part of Juab County is located just south of the Dugway Proving Grounds, about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) northwest of

640-569: The north of the Fish Springs Range ; the routes are accessed from Callao , 17 mi (27 km) west, and about 12 mi (19 km) from the Dugways. The route from Fish Springs is called Pony Express Road, and transits around the southern range terminus and the Pyramid Peak spur. From Pony Express Road, an unimproved road encircles the mountain range, northwest, north, and east; the route

672-534: The northwest corner of the Fish Springs Range. During Jedediah Smith's 1826-27 expedition , Robert Evans nearly died while crossing the desert and in the 1840s, westward emigrants used the Hastings Cutoff through 130 miles (210 km) of Great Salt Lake desert to reduce the distance to California . The 1846 Donner Party 's difficulties in making the crossing contributed to their becoming snowbound in

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704-407: The only water available to wildlife in the desert. Antelope and other wildlife gather there after rainstorms to drink. Threats to dry lakes include pollution from concentrated animal feeding operations such as cattle feedlots and dairies. Results are erosion; fertilizer, pesticide and sediment runoff from farms; and overgrazing . A non-native shrub that has been used for rangeland restoration in

736-457: The rainy season, especially during wet years. If the layer of water is thin and is moved around the dry lake bed by wind, an exceedingly hard and smooth surface may develop. Thicker layers of water may result in a "cracked-mud" surface and teepee structure desiccation features. If there is very little water, dunes can form. The Racetrack Playa , located in Death Valley, California , features

768-407: The range is Castle Mountain (Utah), 6,748 feet (2,057 m)), near the range's center, in the main ridgeline region. With the elevation of the Great Salt Lake about 4,200 ft (1,280 m) (4,196 ft (1,279 m), in 2006), and Bonneville Salt Flats , at 4,219 ft (1,286 m), the surrounding salt flats around the mountain range, are about 4,220 ft (1,286 m). Between

800-441: The range; the mountain is a traveler's landmark with landscape sketches made in the 1800s (1859). The Dugway Range is about 13 mi (21 km) long, with a spur on the south terminus. The spur extends 2.5 mi (4 km) southwest into the Great Salt Lake Desert. The spur, Dugway Ridge, is about 5 mi (8 km) long, south-southwest trending mostly, and ends at Pyramid Peak, 6,120 feet (1,865 m). The highpoint of

832-476: The rocks are exposed. When the temperature drops at night, this pond freezes into thin sheets of "windowpane" ice, which then must be thick enough to maintain strength, but thin enough to move freely. Finally, when the sun comes out, the ice melts and cracks into floating panels; these are blown across the playa by light winds, propelling the rocks in front of them. The stones only move once every two or three years and most tracks last for three or four years. While

864-855: The smoothness of the surface allows low-clearance vehicles to travel very fast without any risk of disruption by surface irregularities, and the path traveled has no obstacles to avoid. The dry lake beds at Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah and Black Rock Desert in Nevada have both been used for setting land speed records. Lake Eyre and Lake Gairdner in South Australia have also been used for various land speed record attempts. Dry lake beds that rarely fill with water are sometimes used as locations for air bases for similar reasons. Examples include Groom Lake at Area 51 in Nevada and Edwards Air Force Base (known initially as Muroc Dry Lake) in California. Brines from

896-503: The subsurface of dry lakes are often exploited for valuable minerals in solution. See, for example, Searles Dry Lake and Lithium resources . Under United States law, a "playa lake" may be considered isolated wetlands and may be eligible to enroll in the new wetlands component of the Conservation Reserve Program , enacted in the 2002 farm bill (P.L. 107–171, Sec. 2101). The Burning Man yearly event takes place in

928-420: The total annual inflow, the depression will eventually become dry again, forming a dry lake. Salts originally dissolved in the water precipitate out and are left behind, gradually building up over time. A dry lake appears as a flat bed of clay, generally encrusted with precipitated salts. These evaporite minerals are a concentration of weathering products such as sodium carbonate, borax, and other salts. In deserts,

960-534: The valley's northeast; also, with the same northwest trendline as the Dugways, the Old River Bed courses along, about 15 mi (24 km), a circuitous wash-bed, containing Old River Bed Road. South of the range at Pony Express Road, is Dugway Pass. The Dugway foothills from here merge south and south-southeast into the northern foothills of the Thomas Range . Adjacent at the south terminus of Granite Mountain,

992-424: The west, Kochia prostrata , also poses a significant threat to playas and their associated rare species, as it capable of crowding out native vegetation and draining a playa's standing water because of its root growth. The extremely flat, smooth, and hard surfaces of dry lake beds make them ideal for fast motor vehicles and motorcycles. Large-sized dry lakes are excellent spots for pursuing land speed records , as

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1024-515: Was found in 2006. Although a large predatory species, it evaded detection because of the murkiness of the playa's water caused by winds and a fine clay load. This shrimp species is able to regenerate using tiny undetectable cysts that can remain in a dry lake bed for years until conditions are optimum for hatching. Lepidium davisii is another rare species, a perennial plant whose habitat is restricted to playas in southern Idaho and northern Nevada. Far from major rivers or lakes, playas are often

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