The salt flats out past Wendover look like another planet, and I watched a guy pull a 40 pound rock out of his trunk

Stella Taylor · 2026-10-20T21:35:05.012061+00:00

I drove out to the Bonneville Salt Flats outside Wendover, Utah, a couple weekends back because my cousin kept saying the place scrambles your brain, and he was right but not for the reason I expected. What got me was how many people treat that flat white nothing like a dump or a playground, there was a group of 6 guys in a rented van doing burnouts and leaving black rings in the crust, and nobody was stopping them. Then I watched a guy in a beat up sedan open his trunk and pull out a chunk of salt crust the size of a suitcase, maybe 40 pounds, and haul it back to his car like a trophy. The rangers say the crust regrows but barely, and a big rain can make those tire tracks stick around for years, so it's kind of a slow wreck that everyone is helping with. It made me wonder if the real crazy theory is that we can just keep treating rare places like this and assume they bounce back. Also turns out the whole flat is a dried up old lake bed, which is wild when you're standing on it. What's the weirdest thing you've ever seen someone take home from a place like that?

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The salt flats out past Wendover look like another planet, and I watched a guy pull a 40 pound rock out of his trunk | Big Ideas Uncut - Free To Speak