It was the night before we went to Yellowstone and Utah , and was so excited I could barely sleep. That really didn’t help the next morning. I slammed my alarm off at 4 AM and fell out of my bed. “Why did we have to get such an early flight?” My brother and I groaned as we got in the car to head to the airport. But, we were going to Yellowstone, so it was worth it. After a slight delay due to a expired fire extinguisher, we flew on an extremely loud plane to Atlanta, and from there to Salt Lake City. The clouds out the window stacked up high above us, while below the fields and forests rolled and the rivers twisted through the landscape. Once we arrived in Salt Lake City, we decided to eat lunch at a local place, “Carlton’s Cookies”. I got their DELICIOUS White Chocolate Pecan Cookie for dessert. Our first stop was straight to Antelope Island State Park.
Entering Antelope Island
There were lots of rough rocks, scraggly shrubs and patchy grass. An entirely new environment for me. It seemed very open and exposed, and no trees to be seen. Still it was fantastic in it’s own rugged way.
View over Salt lake
When we drove to the “beach” of the island, we saw some birds catching the brine shrimp, one of the two inhabitants of this extremely salty lake. Salt Lake is 4-6 times saltier than the ocean.
A Yellow-Headed Blackbird
Not even fish can live in water that salty! Birds love to eat the Brine shrimp, and Brine Flies are on the menu too. We explored and looked at brine shrimp, skipped rocks, and watched birds eat. It was very calm and active at the same time.
Walking along the Lake’s beach
We hiked to the top of a hill covered in rocky terrain. It felt kind of odd to me not being surrounded in trees on a hike, because that is what I was used to being from Western North Carolina. We saw a Chukar with a colorful beak and zebra striped wings.
A Chukar sitting on a rock
There were also few seagulls, Killdeer, and a Yellow-Headed Blackbird. We looked out over the Lake. I wondered at the lakes beauty and yet it’s seemingly emptiness. When we were driving out, we saw some Bison. It was my first time ever seeing this massive creature. It had huge horns and a thick fur coat that was black and brown. I watched it wander off over the hill as we drove off.
My first Bison sighting!
In 1893,William Glassman and John Dooly brought 12 bison to the Island where they could be safe from hunting around the time of their near-extinction. Since then the population has grown to over 500! Since the population grew, they have been auctioning off Bison from the island to help repopulate other areas of the country where their population is low and to help with their genepool. A great but tiring day, we drove to the hotel and got a good nights rest, and hoped we could adjust to the time change soon.
