Monday, March 23, 2009

The Spiral Jetty.



I am having such a good time in Utah! Lots of wonderful people, beautiful scenery, and adventures. Mostly adventures of the rock climbing/bouldering kind, but yesterday, Matt and I had a crazy journey to see the Spiral Jetty.

Ever since my ephemeral media class a few years ago, I have been interested in some of the earlier artworks that kind of revived the Earth works movement. One of them is definitely the Spiral Jetty, made by Robert Smithson in April 1970. The spiral is probably the oldest, most wide-spread symbol on Earth. The image of the spiral has been found in most ancient cultures around the world. It can represent an inward journey to find oneself, an outward journey to find a greater power, the daily birth and death of the sun, the change of the seasons, and the continual flow of life in general.

How Robert Smithson ever decided on this incredibly out-of-the-way stretch of the Great Salt Lake for his art, though, is beyond me. It was at least two hours from Salt Lake City, on one of the farthest-north stretches of the Lake. It was about 16 miles down a dirt road past the Golden Spike, where the last railroad nail connecting the First Transcontinental Railroad across the U.S. was driven. We drove through the swamps surrounding the Great Salt Lake, which I didn't even know existed, and they were eerily like the scenery of Resident Evil 5, which Cody has been playing religiously. We passed by unfenced cows and drove over whole families of tumbleweed. We were at least an hour's drive from any form of civilization.

Finally, we encountered about three other cars as we approached the final mile stretch before the Spiral Jetty.

Unfortunately, our trip did not end with us jumping out of the car and having a care-free afternoon. You see, Matt was going to back up instead of continue along this especially bumpy part of the dirt road. We decided to walk the rest of the way. However, when he backed up, he swung the car a little too wide and it ended up off the road, high-centered--stuck in the middle on a rock with the tires virtually useless. If we had been in a car with 4WD instead of the hybrid, I'm sure it wouldn't have been a big deal. However, as it was, the bumper snapped partially off and there was nothing we could do but find someone to pull us out.

We walked out onto the Spiral Jetty to find an SUV which had passed us earlier, and the guys were very nice and helpful. They pulled us out and the bumper popped right back into place. Once the car was back on even ground, the gas gauges stopped reading empty (which was freaking us out, as the nearest gas station was at least an hour away, and we had no cellphone signal to call for help) and all was well.

Anyway, the Spiral Jetty was very cool. Sometimes it is covered by the Lake, but the waters had receded far into the distance today, where they were pink from the bacteria and algae that are able to survive in the very high salt content of the lake. The rocks were black and porous, and the sand was hard from being packed with salt.

Matt said, "I've never seen so much salt in my life!"

After the cold, raining walk on the Spiral Jetty (of which I will post personal photos when I return home) and harrowing experience of being out in the middle of nowhere, we were very ready to get warm and eat some dinner. We went to the Citris Grill in Salt Lake City, where we had yummy sweet potato fries and warm brownies, and then we went to REI, only to have them close five minutes after we walked in.

We came back to Matt's house to watch "To Catch a Thief." Alfred Hitchcock movies always make me laugh.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very cool. =)

eyelasssh said...

Super cool. I can't wait to see pictures!

Unknown said...

So pretty @_@
I'm glad you're having so much fun one your trip! ^_^

Matthew and Cassie said...

that sounds really cool! I didn't know all that about it! Sorry I missed that trip and wasn't there to help you give Matt crap for getting stuck.

A Lady's Life said...

Hi Elyse. I totally understand. :)
However, more time is spent today on finding reasons why things can't work, as opposed to finding reasons for why it can. Today a lot has changed from the Germaine Greer and Anne Ryand days. I am all for women getting equal pay for equal work and other issues women have problems with but we also have to look at what important things we lose, because we can't have it all.
Life will teach you this.
My main concern is not with adults be they women or men.
My main concern is with the innocent, hurt, because of the issues men and women fight over and the decisions that come out of it.The world is about the future but to build a future, you also need a past and a present and they involve children.
I see what the schools are doing to kids today. I see what pressure groups are doing to kids today.
What young people need to understand is how important it is to be given a chance to be child, when it is your time to be a child, free and innocent, so your mind develops, doing the things it is supposed to be doing, without cluttering it with world problems it doesn't and shouldn't understand;
Given the time to be a teen at a time it is time to be a teen; a twenty year old, needs to be a 20 year old, not a 50 year old. We all have our time to be, to build us into what we will be.If you are forced to skip these times, as kids are forced today, then there is always a price to be paid.
So kids need Mothers and Fathers and family stability.I believe in this strongly. So this is what I wanted to say. By all means fight for what you believe in. Just keep the babies you will bear in mind, that they have needs as well.Stretching yourself too thin isn't going to resolve anything.
:)