A 'Spiral' moonrise

In a brief timed exposure, the early summer moon rises late Wednesday over the Promontory Mountains and artist Robert Smithson's "Spiral Jetty" on the north end of a calm Great Salt Lake, right.

The internationally famous rock and gravel jetty, below left, about the size of a football field, has been submerged off the lake's Rozel Point most of the time since its construction in 1970 but has re-emerged the past few years — crusted with bright white salt.

In fact, Utah's drought and the receding lake left the jetty high and dry, a white coil on a white salt plain, by last autumn. This spring's light runoff returned a few inches of water to the site, helping redefine the spiral, but already the lake level seems to be in retreat, which should leave the jetty stranded on dry land once again this summer.

For those interested in visiting the jetty: Thanks to the Utah Department of Natural Resources, signposts guide visitors, crossroads by crossroads, along the back roads from Golden Spike National Historic Site at Promontory Summit directly to Rozel Point.

The jetty is about 100 miles from Salt Lake City, and the last part of the road leading to the lake shore is extremely rough.