In order to preserve the work, Dia asks that visitors not take existing rocks from the artwork, make fire pits, or trample vegetation.

The red hue of the water is due to the presence of salt-tolerant bacteria and algae that thrive in the extreme 27 percent salinity of the lake's north arm, which was isolated from freshwater sources by the building of a causeway by the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1959.

The heart of the work — the idea that it presents made manifest through an ephemeral environmental intervention — cannot be protected based on the guidelines provided under the Copyright Act.

However, due to the physical work's lack of copyright protection, visitors do not need permission to create or publish their own photographs of the sculpture.

[11] Preservation efforts for Spiral Jetty face considerable challenges due to the remote location of the site and its vulnerability to natural environmental conditions.

Beginning in the early 2000s, however, sustained drought in Utah caused water levels to recede, and Spiral Jetty became visible for the first prolonged period in its history.

As a result, the prominence of Spiral Jetty has risen dramatically over the past decade, increasing both the visitorship to the site and the public's interest in the artwork, at the local, national, and international levels.

This system was specifically designed to document the evolving changes taking place at the Spiral Jetty site and to closely monitor it for any conservation requirements.

[15] The issue of preservation has been complicated by ambiguous statements by Smithson, who expressed an admiration for entropy in that he intended his works to mimic earthly attributes in that they remain in a state of arrested disruption and not be kept from destruction.

The film has been described as Smithson's attempt to "leave the viewer with a sense that the monumental artwork is connected to a vast mental landscape of meanings and associations".

[23] The ephemeral nature of the Spiral Jetty (sometimes visible, sometimes submerged) sparked inquiries[24] into the enduring influence of the artwork and the importance of its various representations, such as photographs, films, and essays.

The photographs played a critical role in preserving and promoting the earthwork's growing renown, acting as the primary connection between the object and its state of being forgotten.

Smithson's conceptual framework, centered around the concepts of temporality and entropy, emphasized the dynamic and destructive elements at play, often referencing the gradual decline and disintegration of the artwork.

[28]: 203  With spiraling screw dislocation in the crystal formation and the enclosed nature of the Salt Lake, Smithson created a sense of containment and movement.

"[32] While time and space are seen as key in the discussion of modern sculpture,[33] it raises challenges for analyzing Spiral Jetty through photographs as it suggests another temporality and hence different values.

As Krauss explains:"In using the form of the spiral to imitate the settlers' mythic whirlpool, Smithson incorporates the existence of the myth into the space of the work.

However, they no longer serve as helpful maps leading to a physical location; instead, they have become signs that direct viewers to an apparitional and chemically vanished object.

Lunberry questions the grounding and ontological location of the Spiral Jetty, suggesting that its various manifestations, including photographs, essays, films, and the actual earthwork, refer to each other but do not fully settle on a singular object.

He states: The photographs thus remain as utterly believable substitutes, authentic apparitions, all that has been needed to restore to our eager eyes the vanished earthwork, raise the form once and for all from out of the waters that both reflect and conceal the Spiral Jetty, affirm and deny its place upon the lake.

Lunberry continues: Then, looking into our own desiring eyes, we may begin to wonder if the issue of seeing itself - the Spiral Jetty's appearance or disappearance, its ontology as an object or an image - has finally proven itself to be far more intricate and involved than initially imagined.

Similar to Krauss, Lunberry's viewing experience involved an imaginary voyage, except that he is aware of temporality: Spiral Jetty has vanished.

Lunberry stated, "the effect of a ghost whose mysterious apparitions[35]: 117–118 During and after the completion of the work, Gianfranco Gorgoni documented the Spiral Jetty with Smithson.