Antelope Island, Part 3, March 30, 2012

 This is a Pronghorn, or known in North America as an Antelope.  However it is it's own species and is not really an antelope.

 This view is of the western side of the island as we drove toward the campground and the Visitor Center.

 We stopped and had our picnic lunch at the campground.  Great view, eh?  Jim and Peri are eating while I pursue a bird's beautiful song.. 

 This unknown bird was singing it's heart out atop a small tree.  The challenge is for some reader to identify it!  I have been unable to do so.

 After leaving the campground we headed up the coast toward the beach on the way to the Visitor Center.

 When we walked through the sand toward the water, we saw this deep print.  So this is for my grandchildren!

 Peri got into the Great Salt Lake up to her ankles. Remember that it is still winter here in March! The mountains in the background are the distant Wasatch, I believe.

 Don't you just love seagulls!  You all know the story of how the seagulls saved the early pioneers here with their first crop which were being eaten by crickets or grasshoppers or some bug!  They have a statue to honor the seagull on Temple Square.

 Ah...the beach!   It was nice to see a beach again after so many months away from one!

 This was a weed but it sure had a nice golden bloom on it.  It might even have been a sagebrush.

 This view is of the causway we drove over to some to the island.  The photo was taken from the Visitor Center.

 This is a gneiss rock, the oldest rock on the island. The southern two-thirds of the island is made up of this rock.  It is 2.7 billion years old, and 10 times older than rocks from the earliest era of the dinosaur.

 

 These are example of the tufa rock, the youngest rocks on the island. They are only about 25,000 years old.

 

 This is a salt crystal which forms when the Great Salt Lake reaches it's saturation point for salt.  Each year about 70,000 boxcar equivalents of salt flow into the lake.  Nearly half of that is extracted each year for commercial use.

 This graph shows where the ancient Lake Bountiful would flood if it were in existance today.  The first icon going up is Temple Square, the next the Capital Building, next the University of Utah.  The last two probably would not have been under water, the This is The Place Monument and Ensign Peak.

 I misread the map and sent us on a long way home to the causeway, but found these deer grazing in a field near the road.  I believe they are called mule deer because of their large ears.

 Now you can really see the ears!

 As we passed over the causeway on our way back to SLC, we saw these American Coots on the water.  They are great little birds who seem to flock in pretty large groups.  We had seen them before on the lakes & rivers of Florida & Georgia.

Antelope Island Part 2, March 30, 2012

 This is part 2, continued from the previous post.  This looks like an early trundle bed.  You can tell better with the next close-up.  It looks to0 new to be authentic so maybe it is a reproduction.

 

 This is the interior of the bunkhouse shown below.  It is a separate building from the ranch house.

 Here you can see the ranch house and the bunkhouse.

 At the opposite end of the bunk house, in the ground basement was this fruit cellar.  Naturally the ground kept it cooler than upstairs.

 This shows the entrance to the fruit cellar on the bunk house.

 Just outside the spring house was this sign.  The ranger tried to show us the male owl but he had flown from where he had last seen him.

 This is the interior of the spring hosue with a real spring in it.  This is "nature's refrigerator".

 Here Jim and I are standing in the spring house next to the spring, as Peri takes our picture.

 This scene is one from the ranch as we look toward the mountains of Antelope Island

 This ranch scene shows the Wasatch Mountains across and to the east, of the island.

 This is a telephoto shot of the previous scene.  Does it get any prettier than this?

 One could get lost in these reeds!  (I forget their name!) They are tall, about 6 or 8 feet.  The Indians used them for thatching on their homes and other uses.  They even ate the green shoots in the spring while they were tender.

 This is a view of the ranch house and the bunk house from one of the pastures.

 Here the dinner bells sits to call in all the ranch hands for supper.

 This is the interior of the ranch office.

 On the way home we spotted some antelope.  They might be called Pronghorn Antelope. So here they are.  This is what the island is named after.

 

 

And one last buffalo shot for this section.  They are amazing animals.

Antelope Island, March 30, 2012

 We headed out to Antelope Island with our guest from Florida, Peri Silvares.  Antelope Island is on the northern end of the Great Salt lake, near Salt Lake City.  As you can see from this photo, we were not sure whether we would have a pretty day or not.  I think we arrived at the Island about 9 or 9:30 am.  This photo is looking back from the Island toward the mainland, or eastward.

 I really loved the colors of the rushes at the edge of the lake, with the sagebrush in the foreground.

 

Just another scene of the same area as we head south on the Island on the east side toward the Ranch.  I just love this place!

 This shot is s little more clear to show the mountains of the Wasatch Range on the east of the island.

 

One of the first signs we came across on the road was the buffalo sign.  We weren't sure whether we would see any to show this gal from the Southeast but we eventually did.

 And here they are!  I don't know how they get enough to eat on that sparse grass but they do.

 We thought our grandchildren would like these shots of buffalo prints in the sand.

 

 This shot shows the causeway we came across to get to the island.

 These are shots from the road as we travel toward to ranch on the island.  It is such a beautiful place!

 I don't know if you will understand the vastness of this place but there is a small white dot about in the middle of the photo which is a vehicle heading our way.  Maybe you can make out the road as it winds ahead of us.

 Hollywood produced a silent film in 1923 called the Covered Wagon.  They filmed a buffalo stampede here at this spot.

 

 Just more mountain scenes as we head south,  Note how small the road gets in these photos.

 This buffalo head was introduced onto the island in 1893 and is one of the oldest & largest public herds in the US. The herd numbers now about 700.  In the fall many are rounded up and some sold to limit the size to what the island can support.

 Pretty, eh??

 The foreground was this beautiful lush green-blue color.  I am not sure it is captured in this photos but trust me, it was beautiful!

 Now we are at the farm and they have this old sheep herder's wagon which I think was a very early RV!  It has sleeping quarters and a stove inside!  Pretty cool!

 This is the ranch house on the ranch with Peri walking out the door.  The furnishing were quite sparse.  The buiding was origiunally made of adobe brick and later added onto with cement blocks with a stucco covering.

This shows one of the rope beds in one of the bedrooms.  I think that often the mattresses were made of straw...talk about bed bugs!  I am sure glad that I was born in today's time.  The floor is linoleum.  I dont think kids today know what that is.