antelope island

I hate to admit it, but I had never been to Antelope Island before. I don't know how this could have happened with me living in Utah my whole life, but it did. It turns out Adam had never been there either... although our boys had with Grandpa Steve.  We decided to check it out...

the causeway

So we headed out on the causeway... a road that goes right through the Great Salt Lake to the island, but drops off on either side. Cool!

The scrumptious clouds added to my love of the afternoon. 

Looking back across the lake at the city of Syracuse.

Besides antelope, the island is home to a group of 500 bison that roam the land.
Turns out we only saw one antelope and hundreds of bison!

Inside the visitors' center are mounted animals and information. I heard 

it was really cool, but I was sitting in the car with a sleeping 2 year old.

Our plan was to stop by the beach to let the boys play and taste the salty water (5 times saltier than the ocean) on our way out, but the clouds moved in and it started to pour later in the day. We'll have to go back sometime.

The island is covered in this. Hardly a flower to see. But it was beautiful and intriguing in it's own right.

I felt like I was in a different state. For real. The views and land were just so unfamiliar. 

We stopped by the lookout point to see bison-- also known as buffalo. 

We found one and watched it graze with the telescope. So exciting! 

Can you see the dark buffalo spec? And the salty white beach?

friends

Linc was happy to follow the bird around.

We continued on our drive and came across these rocks. Adam learned in the visitor's 

center that these are some of the oldest rocks on earth. The more pink, the older they are. 

And then we came upon some buffolo right by the road! We were one happy car of people. It felt like we were on some wild safari or something! I've never seen buffalo up close- they looked so cute and fuzzy! I wanted to give them a pet, but some were huge and those horns look rather menacing. 

And there were even babies! They looked just like baby cows.

bison family

These guys decided to run right through a break in the cars that had pulled over. 

 The burrowing owl also lives on the island. They burrow in the ground instead of living in trees. We didn't see any live ones, but Ollie suckered his dad into getting him this one at the gift shop. Good thing he's buckled in too.

Adam was all about collecting stuff for Elliott's new gecko- like a branch 

from this dead tree that he learned (too late) was surrounded by stinging nettle. 

wading in the stinging nettle

The views were beautiful on all sides! 

rocks for the gecko

More sticks?

barn

We stopped by the old ranch house that was still set up like it was back in the day. The house itself is the oldest Anglo-built house in Utah still standing on it's original foundation, built in 1848.

Is it weird that I want my future house to look like this someday? 

Cleaned up of course- but I love all the wood and metal and high ceilings!!

Giant puffy cloud on the drive out.

At the end we saw this coyote, which roam the island too. At least we think that's what it is?

I was so confused by the rainy forecast because it was so sunny and hot all day. 

But the rains came around 5 PM. No beach for us this time. I might have preferred the beach over the museum/old house...

We sort of felt like we were looking out at the ocean.

As we drove back toward the city, an awful smell permeated our car! We were laughing so hard, plugging our noses. And then we saw this green sludge rising up- from the rain we think. It was so gross! What was going on? Oh well- it made us laugh. I feel for the people of Syracuse if this happens on a regular basis? FYI- it didn't stink all day- just smelled ocean-y.  

We saw amazing rainbows the whole drive home. 

Going to Antelope Island is pretty cool, if you're into seeing new places.
It only cost $9 per car to enter. 

Directions:

Take 1-15 to the Syracuse exit #332. (The one after the air force museum.)

Drive West on Antelope Drive for 7 miles, to the park entrance, then another 7 miles across a narrow causeway to the island.

For more info, go here.