• Spiral Jetty
  • Low angle Spiral Jetty
  • On Spiral Jetty
  • All the rings
  • Curving center
  • The center
  • Outer rings
  • Outer rings looking at the lake
  • People in the center
  • Looking straight at the center
  • Spiral Jetty and Audi Q7 TDI
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Photos: Spiral Jetty, Robert Smithson's wondrous earthwork

Spiral Jetty

Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty, one of the world's most famous earthworks, sits on the north side of the Great Salt Lake, near Promontory Summit. The artwork, which Smithson built in 1970, has had an interesting history, including spending years submerged under a sustained higher lake level.

Today, it is fully uncovered, but the thousands of volcanic basalt rocks that make up Spiral Jetty no longer stick up three feet above the salt-encrusted surface of the lake, as they did when the piece was first built.

CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman visited Spiral Jetty as part of his Road Trip 2009 project.

Photo by: Daniel Terdiman/CNET

Low angle Spiral Jetty

A low angle look at Spiral Jetty from in front, just off the north shore of the Great Salt Lake.

Robert Smithson, the artist who created Spiral Jetty, died in 1973, just three years after the earthwork was installed. Today it is managed by the Dia Art Foundation.

Click here for the entire Road Trip 2009 package.

Photo by: Daniel Terdiman/CNET

On Spiral Jetty

A view of Spiral Jetty from the approach to the earthwork.

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Photo by: Daniel Terdiman/CNET

All the rings

A view from inside Spiral Jetty with all the rings of the spiral visible.

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Photo by: Daniel Terdiman/CNET

Curving center

The curved center of Spiral Jetty.

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Photo by: Daniel Terdiman/CNET

The center

The center of the spiral, looking out at the Great Salt Lake.

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Photo by: Daniel Terdiman/CNET

Outer rings

The outer rings of Spiral Jetty.

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Photo by: Daniel Terdiman/CNET

A view of the center of Spiral Jetty and the mountains that are on the other side of the Great Salt Lake.

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Photo by: Daniel Terdiman/CNET

Outer rings looking at the lake

The outer rings of the world-famous earthwork, Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty.

Click here for the entire Road Trip 2009 package.

Photo by: Daniel Terdiman/CNET

People in the center

Two people walking through Spiral Jetty give a sense of the earthwork's scale.

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Photo by: Daniel Terdiman/CNET

Looking straight at the center

A direct view of the center of Spiral Jetty.

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Photo by: Daniel Terdiman/CNET

Spiral Jetty and Audi Q7 TDI

The Audi Q7 TDI, which he took to Spiral Jetty, that CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman is driving on Road Trip 2009.

Photo by: Daniel Terdiman/CNET

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