When tired Mormon settlers crested the Wasatch Mountains in July 1847 and first beheld the Great Salt Lake, they almost didn’t believe their eyes. The Great Salt Lake is the largest natural lake west of the Mississippi River and the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere. The Great Salt Lake is unique and uniquely fragile, utterly dependent on freshwater inflows to maintain its brackish wetlands, which are hotspots of biodiversity. The Great Salt Lake is unique and uniquely fragile, utterly dependent on freshwater inflows to maintain its brackish wetlands, which are hotspots of biodiversity. Visitors stand in the waters of the Great Salt Lake on April 07, 2026 near Magna, Utah.