If I Were Going...: California, Here We Go

Sunset at Buffalo Point on Antelope Island

Our trip to California, Oregon and Washington was fun, but it was time to go home. We had no set agenda, so Scott decided to go through Salt Lake City so that he could show me Antelope Island. As it turns out, we made it to SLC so late, we barely had time at the island before the sun set and, then, we had a little time right after dawn before we hit the road.

With the heat of August and the landscape at Antelope Island, that was perfect!

In the summer, late or early is best

Everything was bathed in glorious golden light ...

In early August, the grass is golden

... or, even better, the glow of a spectacular sunset ...

The sun setting on the Great Salt Lake

A short stop, but a nice one.

At the southeastern corner of the Great Salt Lake, Antelope Island covers 42 square miles and becomes a peninsula when the lake is extremely low. The largest of ten islands located within the Great Salt Lake, it is home to Pronghorn (after which the island is incorrectly named) ...

Pronghorn grazing before sunset

... Bighorn Sheep, Mule Deer, many small mammals and millions of waterfowl ...

Left to right: Eared Grebes, California Gulls and American Avocets

It is also the site of one of the few free-roaming American Bison herds in the U.S. ...

We never saw a herd, just a few individuals

Bison were introduced to the island in 1893 and have proven to be a valuable genetic pool for breeding and conservation purposes. The Bison do well because much of the island is covered by dry, native grassland.

Lots of golden grass and a few sunflowers

Another thing that seemed to do well was Orb-weaver Spiders. They were everywhere.

Western Spotted Orb-weavers

A rocky outcrop

Antelope Island consists mostly of alluvial plains with prairie grassland on the north, east and south of the island. The mountainous central area is ancient metamorphic and igneous rocks covered by newer sedimentary rocks, which are, in turn, covered by a thin layer of lake deposits. The highest peak is at 6,596 feet, which is about 2,500 feet above the lake.

Antelope Island boasts some of the oldest rocks in the United States, older even than the rocks at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

Antelope Island is surrounded by the Great Salt Lake, which salt levels reaching as much as 25 percent of the lake by volume.

Great Salt Lake view

Therefore, the lake does not support fish, but does support large numbers of brine shrimp and brine flies, which provide food for visiting waterfowl. And, boy was there waterfowl!

Most striking was a huge flock of American Avocets, feeding in the shallows along the seven-mile causeway that connects the island to the mainland ...

Thousands of American Avocets

We also encountered large concentrations of Franklin’s Gulls …

Franklin's Gulls on the wing

California Gulls …

The California Gull is the Utah state bird

Wilson’s Phalaropes …

Wilson's Phalaropes – the same bird we saw at Mono Lake

And, a lifer for me, Eared Grebes …

A new bird for me – and boy were there a lot of them!

Because of the high salinity, the island is mostly without readily available fresh water. Although not strictly a desert island, Antelope Island has no permanent human inhabitants and conditions are quite dry and can be very hot during the summer. That’s why late evening and early morning were perfect. There are a few natural springs, mostly in the mountainous spine of the island and towards the south end of the island.

The evening we visited, we stopped at Buffalo Point (also misnamed; Bison are not Buffalo), where water and restrooms are available. There is also a gift shop and small fast-food restaurant that is open during the main visitor season, but nothing was open when we were there. Public beaches, a marina and overnight camping areas are available on the northern part of the island.

Buffalo Point

On the east side of the island, 11 miles south of the causeway, is the Fielding Garr Ranch, which contains the oldest building in Utah built by European-Americans that is still on its original foundation.

The first known non-natives to visit the island were John C. Frémont and Kit Carson during exploration of the Great Salt Lake in 1845. They allegedly "rode on horseback over salt from the thickness of a wafer to twelve inches" and "were informed by the Indians that there was an abundance of fresh water on it and plenty of ‘Antelope.’" It is said they shot a Pronghorn on the island and in gratitude for the meat they named the site Antelope Island. Of course, they didn’t know then that Pronghorn are not related to Antelope.

The island's misidentified namesake

Originally, Antelope Island was used as a ranch for cattle and sheep, starting from the earliest days of the arrival of the Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) controlled the ranch from 1848 until 1870, when the island was purchased by John Dooly, Sr. He established the Island Improvement Company, which managed the island and ranches from 1884 until 1981.

This could have been a National Park

Early in the 20th Century, because of its wildlife and scenic beauty, some wanted Antelope Island to become a National Park, but the movement never came to fruition.

When the Utah State Parks System was created, public support grew for making the area a State Park, despite the fact that the land was privately owned.

The State of Utah purchased the northern part of the island in 1969. When the State acquired the remainder in 1981, Antelope Island State Park was established and the cattle and sheep were removed.

A bison wallow in the dust

Antelope Island State Park has approximately 300,000 visitors annually.

Its big annual event is a Bison Roundup held each October. Similar to the Custer State Park (South Dakota) Bison roundup, this event is more than a tourist attraction.

It is a primary tool to ensure the continued health of one of the nation's largest and oldest public bison herds.

Visitors can watch as hundreds of horseback riders round up nearly 700 bison from around the Island and move them north into the holding corrals.

The Bison rest for five days to reduce their stress levels for sorting, vaccination and implantation of a computer chip that serves as a permanent ID and stores health information.

Then, some Bison are released back onto the island and some are sold in a public auction. With no natural predators on the island capable of taking down a bison, it is necessary to artificially reduce the herd size to balance out the food supply. The ideal herd size on Antelope Island is about 550 bison.