Antelope Island - Utah

Last week we were in Salt Lake City visiting our son and his wife Laurie. Since we had never been to Utah, wading in the Great Salt Lake was on our list of things to do. The day after we arrived, Chris took us to Antelope Island State Park, which we found to be a great place to see a nice part of the Great Salt Lake. Antelope island is the largest of the Salt Lake's nine islands.

Chris and Laurie had visited the island twice, without seeing any antelope. Not so this time - we saw two. These are skittish, shy creatures that do not allow you to get too close. I got close enough to take a photo of the second one we saw. The Great Salt Lake is in the background.



The American bison (which most people just call buffalo) are less shy. They are actually very easy to get close to - close enough to be unsafe. At Yellowstone National Park, more people are killed or injured by bison than they are by bears. There are about 600 bison on Antelope Island.



Wading in the lake was fun. We didn't see any fish jumping (since there aren't any). The only life under the water is brine shrimp. Plenty of ducks and birds are on top of the water feeding on the shrimp. The Great Salt Lake is six times saltier than ocean water.





Chris and I were the only ones who felt like hiking that day. It was hot, but not "Alabama thick humidity" hot. We walked up Buffalo Point, about a 20-minute steep climb.





Few places I have been were as a quiet as Buffalo Point. We only passed two hikers on the way up and a couple more on the way down. There were no boats on the lake, no planes in the sky. Just silence.





On the way out of the park, we stopped at the visitors center for this photo-op.