Spiral Jetty Take 2: A Comedy of Errors

Right: Spiral Jetty on May 25, 2010; Left: Spiral Jetty on June 8, 2011

After seeing Heidi's pictures from her trip the Spiral Jetty last week, I was amazed by how drastically the landscape around the jetty has changed in a year's time. I wanted to get back before I moved because I really do think it's one of the more beautiful places on Earth. So Steve, Bob, and Bob's friend, Steffan, and I headed out to the jetty just as a storm moved into the valley. I was a bit worried that the rain would ruin our plans, but instead the storm paused in time for us to explore the jetty and provided a really amazing backdrop.

However, I should have been worried about other things. Given that the jetty is almost submerged by the Great Salt Lake, I decided to remove my Birkenstocks and simply wade around. I also decided to shove my phone into my back jean pocket, thinking it would be safer there than in my jacket pocket. But because I had to take pictures using my phone, the phone did not stay long in that pocket. As I swiftly removed the phone, I also unknowingly took with it my debit card. The debit card went flying, arching high and landing outside of the jetty in a cloud of salty, briny water. I saw it from the corner of my eye, but didn't fully realize what had happened until Steve exclaimed, "Your debit card!"

I didn't have much hope that we'd be able to retrieve the debit card, since we were searching by touch, moving our feet through the sand. But we did. Success! Not wanting to lose the card a second time, I handed it to Steve to put in a buttoned pocket. And then, we resumed our exploration of the jetty, wading knee deep along its outside. I stopped to take a picture of Bob who had waded a far distance from the jetty, placed the phone in my back pocket again and took a step backwards. Hands down.

My heel hit one of the jagged, submerged rocks, sending me backwards and onto my butt.

With that clumsy fall, my phone became the next drowning victim of the Great Salt Lake. I may have muttered a few choice words and then laughed because seriously? SERIOUSLY! Debit card and then my phone! I would have traded the jetty my debit card for my phone.

Soaked with grimy salt water and cold, I decided not to tempt fate any longer and headed back to the truck, content to view the jetty from afar. But as I went to put my Birkenstocks back on my feet, I discovered that the jagged, submerged rock had left me with two more presents--1) a large gash in my heel, which was now bleeding and 2) a strip of sticky tar on the same foot's arch.

Awesome.

I also love that when I asked Steve to send me some pictures from his camera, he sent me like 2 pictures of the jetty and more pictures of me having to scrape the tar off of my foot with a knife. Notice Steve's first-aid handy work on my heel. I'll spare you the close-up picture of my foot.

But despite the dead phone and the gash in my foot and the tar (nail polish remover removes everything!), the evening was one of the best. I have never seen the area so green and alive. As we drove back towards the Wasatch Range, we watched the clouds cascade down the mountains like fingers and viewed a vivid rainbow that spanned the entire landscape. The land was blanketed with deep, dark purple flowers, giving a whole, new meaning to "purple mountain majesties."

Bob commented that the evening was the most colorful days that he could remember. And I would have to agree. Despite my clumsiness, it was one of those evenings that I wish I could package away forever.