Some people put it on cruise control and motor south through the Salt Lake area cursing the Mormon Metroplex traffic and congestion. WHOA! That ain't us. Nope, we got our eyes out for "the good stuff." Like visible reminders of ancient Lake Bonneville. Now, there's a sight!
Lake Bonnevile was freaking HUGE--lots of glaciers melted and the runoff had nowhere to go. A huge lake formed in west central Utah. Finally, the water rose high enough that it breached a weak spot in the shoreline near what's now Red Rock Pass. A biblical flood of epic proportions then took place. A trip south on I-15 takes you right up the gut of this flood south of Pocatello and then you go over the Malad Summit and drop right into the belly of the lake. For about 100 miles you can scan the eastern foothills looking for lake-carved shorelines and terraces.
Click here for a short capsule of the flood. You can Google up immense amounts of information about it as it is widely studied and continually documented. In the photo above, the houses are on a lake terrace and you can see another terrace above it. The shorelines marks and terraces are fascinating and make the drive so much more fun!
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