Day 49: Antelope Island

Wednesday

Antelope Island: Took this fromthe plane in January 2012

Although Salt Lake City is built by the Great Salt Lake and even named after it it is largely ignored by the inhabitants, I think they feel slightly cheated by it and see it as part of the desert, somewhere separate, rather than part of their own environment. This is a shame as it is a very beautiful and different place. One of the best places to get to see the Great Salt Lake is on Antelope Island. This is the largest island in the lake. The lake itself is 75 x 23 miles and Antelope Island is 15 miles long and a couple of miles wide. Although the lake is only a few feet deep, it maxes out at 30 ft, Antelope Island's ruggedly rocky spine reaches over 2000ft high, surprisingly, since it is surrounded by a slat lake there are lots of freshwater springs. This means that animals there can survive quite happily. There is a delightfully simple food chain: Brine shrimp (also known as sea monkeys), brine flies and certain types of algae are the only things that can survive in/on the lake, with its 12% salinity, so they have the whole place to themselves, however they  are eaten by vast numbers of water fowl and seabirds, which in turn are meat for the predatory raptor birds.
On the island however the presence of fresh water allows desert plants like sage and grasses to survive, which in turn form the base of a food pyramid that includes many insects, like butterflies and crickets, which we saw, as well as small and larger mammals. we were delighted to see a coyote loping through the grasslands as we drove on the island. We also came across a large (upwards of thirty animals) herd of pronghorn, from which the island gets its name, and two very large herds of bison, numbering perhaps a hundred each. Add to this the hawks and smaller birds that we saw and it is obvious that there is a thriving ecosystem on the island, helped along by it being a State Park.
We drove on to the island via the four mile causeway, which enabled us to get an immediate flavour of the place, which was of beautiful flat calm waters reflecting images of the surrounding islands and mountains. The warm sun and blue skies made it look even more attractive. We stopped at the Visitor Center, which strangely was hideous! Built like a concrete blockhouse in the Brutalist style - very 70's, complete with the markings left by the wooden molds, however amongst  the low dunes beach setting it looked more like a wartime bunker to defend against invasion, though perhaps that was the intention of the architect, to provide protection against invasion by eco spoilers.
Once we got past that  we were able to drive down the length of the island, taking time to watch the wild life on the way, until we reached the lone ranch, which was set out as it was left in the 70's. Further along we could see both more bison and cowboys who were setting up camp to be part of the Great Bison Roundup that was due to take place in the next few days.
From there we had to drive all the way back up the island, stopping again to see bison and pronghorn. After dipping my hands in the Great Salt Lake, just to say I had experienced it, we then drove home via Golden Corral for dinner. Which I think is a record - we have eaten out for six of the last eight days - how decadent. Another great day out, we certainly felt blessed to be able to experience Antelope Island.