A visit to Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake, northwest of Salt Lake City, UT, was on the agenda for the day. It was somewhat overcast, but we headed out anyway. There is a long causeway allowing you to drive directly onto the island - no ferry or boat ride required.
At the Visitor's Center, we learned there are between 500 and 700 free range Buffalo on the island. We saw a few (maybe as many as 50 buffalo total), but the island is large compared to the little bit we were able to see from the road and I'm sure most of the wild animals are shy. There are also elk, deer and bighorn sheep, but we didn't see any of these.
The haze put the island in a different light, but it was still pretty!
Towards the south end of the island, there was a ranch that was open to the public. People were climbing all over everything there. There were antiques in the kitchen cabinets, old washing machines in the laundry and furniture in the rooms. In the barns, tools lay upon workbenches as if someone would be coming back to work on a project.
The largest barn is where they once sheared sheep. A lot of the mechanical equipment was still in place or could be envisioned from what remained. I am sure life was hard when this place was in full operation only a few years ago.
I am not sure why there was blasting equipment in the barn, but clearly, all I needed was a handlebar mustache to be the quintessential villain!
Kate wanted to walk down to the water's edge, so we circled back to the beach. I had to retreat to the car after only a few minutes of the relentless onslaught of tiny little gnats. Kate and Joani made it to the water and back, but they were covered in gnats when they got in the car. As we drove home, they would roll down the windows every so often to let the critters out.
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