Antelope Island, Utah
August 8, 2005
 | We drove about 40 minutes north from Salt Lake City to reach the causeway that leads out to Antelope Island. This is a view from the causeway showing the north side of Antelope Island. This large island out in the shallows of the Great Salt Lake had apparently been visited for centuries by the Fremont Indians that lived in the foothills of the Wasatch Mountains. Explorer John C. Fremont and his guide Kit Carson visited the island in 1845. Observing antelope on the windswept slopes of the island, they named it Antelope Island. |
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We went to the visitor center on Antelope Island from which we got a good view of the causeway we had just come across. Then we went to a point on the west end of the island to look across the Great Salt Lake to the mountains beyond.
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 | We drove along the north shore, which had a serene beauty. |
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We saw quite a few of the birds they call chuckers, which flock and move sort of like quail in the underbrush. And as is usual in the west, there were lots of colorful sunflowers.
Seeing a herd of bison in a very western-looking setting was neat. We watched them for quite a while from the roadside.
 | This bison herd certainly did not stretch from horizon to horizon. But there were enough of them to encourage you to fantasize about the time when they did. |
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The buffalo seemed quite docile, grazing only a few yards away from us. But the look of the bull on the right reminded us that it was probably prudent to stay close to the car.
 | Somehow the above picture was particularly exhilirating to me. Seeing these three bison with the wide open spaces of grazing land out before them was sort of symbolic. We also liked watching the birds on the back of the buffalo looking for insects. |
| On to Fielding Garr Ranch |
2005