On Saturday, we drove out to Saltair to see the Great Salt Lake. It was pretty gross. First of all, when we got there, some of the lake water had evaporated, so we had to walk 300-400 yards to get to the water. On the way, we saw tons of dead birds. There were well over 40 on our path.
Then, when we got up to the water, there were billions of tiny bugs/flies. A few feet from where the water lapped the sand, there was an area of ~6 feet that was black. It was black because there were that many little bug flies on the ground. When you got close, they would start to fly away. Well, their flight caused the ones next to it to flee and so you would have a tidal wave of little bug flies that flew away from the point of contact.
Anyway, I wanted to go in the water (so that I can say that I have swam in the Great Salt Lake)…but that meant that I had to cross the six foot barrier of flies on the ground. So I took off my shirt and shoes and left them with Laura. As I got close to the six-foot barrier, I ran and tried to jump through it with only touching the ground once or twice but I’m sure I probably squished dozens of these little bug flies.
Once I got into the water, there were still bugs (floating on the water), but they were dead, so at least they didn’t fly up around me. I waded 100 yards into the lake and eventually the bugs turned into random floating things instead.
At about 100 yards, the water still wasn’t up to my knees. The lake is REALLY shallow. Well, I figured it wasn’t going to get much deeper without wading a lot farther in, so I laid down in the water on my back to see if I floated a lot better. In the process, I splashed some water in my mouth (and it was super salty—so I can say I tasted the water). I did float better…but not THAT much better. It's just barely noticeable. So, I floated for about sixty seconds, called it good, and waded back to the shore. I kicked water up on the beach to scatter the flies before crossing the barrier. It basically gave them more time to fly higher so they were flying all around my chest height by the time I ran through them.
I got back to Laura and Katie, we got right into the car, drove home, and everyone showered. We all felt like we might have contracted 18 diseases in the 15 minutes we spent there. ...but at least we can now say that we have been to the Great Salt Lake. :)
Then, when we got up to the water, there were billions of tiny bugs/flies. A few feet from where the water lapped the sand, there was an area of ~6 feet that was black. It was black because there were that many little bug flies on the ground. When you got close, they would start to fly away. Well, their flight caused the ones next to it to flee and so you would have a tidal wave of little bug flies that flew away from the point of contact.
Anyway, I wanted to go in the water (so that I can say that I have swam in the Great Salt Lake)…but that meant that I had to cross the six foot barrier of flies on the ground. So I took off my shirt and shoes and left them with Laura. As I got close to the six-foot barrier, I ran and tried to jump through it with only touching the ground once or twice but I’m sure I probably squished dozens of these little bug flies.
Once I got into the water, there were still bugs (floating on the water), but they were dead, so at least they didn’t fly up around me. I waded 100 yards into the lake and eventually the bugs turned into random floating things instead.
At about 100 yards, the water still wasn’t up to my knees. The lake is REALLY shallow. Well, I figured it wasn’t going to get much deeper without wading a lot farther in, so I laid down in the water on my back to see if I floated a lot better. In the process, I splashed some water in my mouth (and it was super salty—so I can say I tasted the water). I did float better…but not THAT much better. It's just barely noticeable. So, I floated for about sixty seconds, called it good, and waded back to the shore. I kicked water up on the beach to scatter the flies before crossing the barrier. It basically gave them more time to fly higher so they were flying all around my chest height by the time I ran through them.
I got back to Laura and Katie, we got right into the car, drove home, and everyone showered. We all felt like we might have contracted 18 diseases in the 15 minutes we spent there. ...but at least we can now say that we have been to the Great Salt Lake. :)
In this video, you can see a wall of these flies flying low
over the ground towards us from the top right.
The video doesn't really do them justice. You can only barely see them.
Imagine that our camera was better and you could see the flies. You would pick out a lot
more action happening and a lot more flies flying around. YUCK!!!
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