Antelope Island

I haven't been out to Antelope Island in the middle of the Great Salt Lake for years.  I remembered the shallow water with brine shrimp swimming around in it (actually crustaceans, not brine fly larvae as I erroneously believed up until this visit.)  I remembered the round grains of sand, the clouds of brine flies, and of course, the smell of the Great Salt Lake.  That's a hard thing to forget.  After Chris flew back to S.Cal, I had time on my hands with the kids so I took them on the long drive out on the causeway to the island.  We were actually pretty lucky in that it wasn't too hot (no shade out there), we saw plenty of wildlife (a burrowing owl, antelope, bison from a distance, and big orb spiders), and the kids were really entertained with just exploring.

One of the bison art installments.  Not pictured are the big spiders living inside it.

Big spiders all over the visitors center.

Nathaniel, Sydney, Courtney, Davis, and Carson.

Atlases (or is it Atli for plural?)

Walking out to the water

It stays shallow for a long time and its so salty you can skip rocks even throwing them underhand.

These guys wandered way out.  They spent a lot of time skipping rocks which would go forever on the salt water.



Look closely for the cloud of brine flies.  I taught them how to herd them.



Davis found a cool old bike at the historic ranch.

Nathaniel weighs himself on the old scale.

Hope it's not hooked up to any dynamite...

Who knew blacksmithing could be so fun?

Great view from the island to the Wasatch Mountains.

It would be easier to if those dang cattle would hold still.

Hold on!

Davis got the hang of it, and then tried it on his cousins and brother.

But, we didn't float in the salt water.  I wasn't that excited about it and we didn't bring swim gear.  And I never really liked the feeling of my skin when the oily salt dried all over it.  So, it was a successful outing without that experience.