The Spiral Jetty: Having stayed in Bigham City (north of Salt Lake City - where ironically the was a newspaper in our motel describing visitors from London going on a "pilgrimage" to the Spiral Jetty - the same title that Simon had called his talk he gave in San Francisco - click here for the article) we drove West on highway 83 past the rocket testing centre accompanied by a Led Zeppelin CD. Passing the Golden Spike National Historic Site (GSNHS) the tarmac turned into dirt tracks of variable quality for the rest of the 16 mile journey to the Spiral jetty. In the PT Cruiser our speed was limited to around 10 mph so the going was slow. However this wasn't a problem as it meant we could relax more into the mellow mood, listen to the whole of the Zeppelin CD and watch the amazing landscape unfold: black mountains and hills, salt plains, glimpses of the salt lake, strange cloud formations and endless rows of mini sunflower plants waving in the breeze. A few people passed us in cars / 4x4's in either direction which was fun - waving to fellow Spiral Jetty fans, however it did make us worry that it may be full of people by the time we arrived.
Eventually we arrived at a parking spot about half a mile from the Spiral Jetty, just past the spot where the (infamous and much photographed) abandoned Dodge Van, Pink Caravan and amphibious vehicle were located. From here we couldn't see the Spiral Jetty but we could see the 'Bad Jett' (as we later termed it) which was left by the oil drillers in the 1950's and must have been the inspiration for Robert Smithson. 'Bad Jetty' was straight with various limbs stretching out from it onto the lake and surrounded by various discarded rusting metal objects: base of a truck, oil cans, a sphere, pipes etc.
Having parked the car we loaded up with provisions (camera, water, stove, coffee, sun tan lotion) and walked the short distance to where we then stood overlooking the long awaited Spiral Jetty, which was immediately very impressive and yet like a photo having seen images of it so often. There were already a couple of people on the Spiral Jetty so we took a walk up onto Rozel Point. This was a good move as from there we were able to get a view of the whole of the Spiral Jetty and generally to take the landscape in.
Luckily the clouds from the morning cleared leaving us in scintillating hot sun. We could see that the water levels had dropped a bit but overall the Spiral Jetty was surrounded by water. This was a relief as recently we had heard that the water had disappeared and that the Spiral Jetty was 'beached'.
Once the couple began to leave the Spiral Jetty we made our way down from Rozel Point to meet them. They turned out to be ex-Mormon Quakers, very pleased to find out we'd come all the way from England to be there, and also encouraged us to visit the Sun Tunnels which we'd thought would take too long to get too so were going to give them a miss.
Once they'd left we then had the Spiral Jetty to ourselves for about two full hours which was very lucky. In fact it felt we were in the midst of some other form of intelligence (like in the film Solaris) as a number of coincidences were happening including then looking at the sky and at that moment a huge spiral cloud wad appearing above the Spiral Jetty!
The experience of walking onto the Spiral Jetty was far beyond what I expected it to be like. It felt like it had quite a presence and also the landscape it was in was far more beautiful than I expected - particularly the way the colours of the lake seemed to be changing - blues, pinks, reds - due to the salt crystals the whole of the Spiral Jetty would shimmer and glint like snow and ice. In fact it was very similar to walking on snow.
Whilst walking on the Spiral Jetty I felt as if I was in an altered state of mind, quite meditative and uplifted. Standing on the edge of the Spiral Jetty looking out at the Salt Lake with its pink waters gently lapping the 'shore' of the Spiral Jetty I couldn't help thinking of Solaris - that this was what it must have been like for Kris Kelvin as he stood on the shore of Solaris.
Slowly we made our way to the centre and then back again before then sitting on the hillside below Rozel point to brew coffee and gaze further at the landscape. As we sat there the spiral cloud slowly turned into a vast grey cloud which began on the distant horizon over the Spiral Jetty and spread back and over us to either side, complete with lightening storm. As we sat there it felt like the intensity had dropped from the experience and that we felt more normal again. I enjoyed getting some photos of myself drinking from the Spiral Jetty mug my brother Jamie had made me.
As we returned to the car two separate couples arrived and passed as though closing the free Spiral Jetty 'window' we had enjoyed. The journey back was again slow along the dirt tracks and was accompanied by a violent lightening storm.
