Trucks rumble through the Great Salt Lake Desert, which spreads some 5,000 square miles [12,950 square kilometers] across Utah's northwest corner. The desert is home to the Bonneville Salt Flats, one of the flattest, most obstacle-free places on earth.

(Text adapted from and photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Utah: Land of Promise, Kingdome of Stone," January 1996, National Geographic magazine)