12 September 2013 - A is for Antelope Island

My plan for this evening was to put another coat of paint on the shop. I started out there and said "No. It's time for some fun."  Got in the car and took myself off to the island.

I am so in love with Antelope Island. If if weren't state land, I'd want to build a house there. So much to love: wind swept slopes, craggy rock formations alternating with slopes covered with tumbled white boulders. The geology is amazing. Most of the island was once under the waters of Lake Bonneville. Even if I could get over the land itself, the flora and fauna will keep me returning again and again. 

Driving home, I  was thinking I could write a Sleeping Bear style children's book about the island. 

A is for Antelope. 
Yes, there is a reason it is called Antelope Island.  Pronghorns are native to both Utah and the island. 
On this trip the antelope  were everywhere. 

Usually the antelope are not in sight or a long ways off. I lost count of how many I saw.  



B is for Bison.
Wow. I must have seen at least 300 buffalo scattered around in large herds around the island. 

Doesn't this look like something out of the Old West?  But, wait, this is the old west. 

                                       
 Lots of youngsters running around playing games with each other--racing around the parents, kicking their back feet in the air, even saw some head-butting. They often stop traffic. Including me.

Have you ever wondered about the etching in your side mirrors that says Objects may be closer than they appear?  It is so true! This guy was about five feet from my back bumper. I was stopped for about ten minutes while at least fifty buffalo ambled across the road in front and behind me. Waiting on the herd to cross the road was not a hardship. What fun to be so up close and personal with these massive animals. I did have a few visions of some big male pushing my car over, but I do have an active imagination.

The island is also home to mule deer, big-horned sheep, badgers, bobcats, porcupines and coyotes as well as the ubiquitous jackrabbit. 

Antelope Island is the largest of the GSL's 10 islands, although the lake is so low that right now it is more of a penisula. The oldest rocks found on this island are from the Precambrian era (a whopping 2.7 billion years old!) and are older than the Precambrian rocks found at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. It makes me feel very small and insignificant.

The rock outcroppings and formations are spectacular. Many of the rocks have beautiful striping. 

Then contrast these with what is on the other side of the road--a hillside covered with rounded boulders. Totally different rocks.

Or contrast with these rugged outcroppings. This looks like a boar with front legs stretched out in front.

Then these rocks are totally different than the rocks in the previous picture. Such diversity!

I started going to Antelope Island for the birds. It is a major stop for migrating birds which is fabulous, but now I go for the island and the birds are almost secondary. Almost. 

I ran across a flock of Chukars-- counted 25 but think there were more. There were so many juveniles in the group running every which way, while adults stood on rocks and tried to call them to order. 

I had pulled over at a spring area hoping to find some of the little birds that I was hearing and another car pulled in to see what I was looking at. 

One of the women was telling me about seeing some large but really scrawny quail running around. I am sure she saw these juvenile chukars.  

There is an area of the island where a pair of great horned owls tend to hang out. I spent a good half hour searching the tree tops and finally found the female.  What a beauty!

I also spent quite some time following movement in the undergrowth trying to find the bird(s) causing it.  I haven't figured out who they are yet. One is some kind of a wren and other one of the many flycatcher varieties. 

This is the wren. It doesn't have the distinguishing marks that would help me identify it. They do this on  purpose. I have it narrowed down to perhaps a house wren or a rock wren.

And here is the flycatcher--complete with fly, although in this case I think it is a grasshopper. 

 The sunflowers were full of blackbirds. 

When I realized it was getting near dusk, I drove to Buffalo Point and hiked to the top. 


From this ridge you can see the west side of the island and lake and see the next band of islands. Oh my. I didn't want to leave. I had the sun setting into the lake to the west, and the last rays of sun hitting Bridger Bay on the east. 

And here, the last rays of the sun hitting the smoke on Stansbury Island. The smoke is from a minerals company that makes potassium sulfate and magnesium and sodium chloride. 

I turned back east, looked across the lake to the Wasatch Mountains and I could see rain coming down along the front from Salt Lake to Ogden. 

This was accompanied by lightning and thunder that I could hear from 40 miles away. The sun came out in the west and there was a rainbow that stayed in place for almost an hour. 
 
One end came down in Bountiful and the other end was anchored in Ogden Canyon about 25 miles north. 

As the storm moved north, the last rays of the sun hit the rain  turned it pink.  This photo does not do it justice.

See the really bright pink spot above to the far left?  

That is the rainbow you see in the picture before this.  The setting sun made it glow. It was amazing.

You just never know what incredible new thing you will stumble across on this island.                 

By now it was getting dark, and I still had to get down from the ridge. Definitely not one of my better ideas, hiking an unfamiliar trail in the dark. A steep and rocky trail to boot.