Today I went to Antelope Island – my new friends Cali and Patrick took the trip with me. Antelope Island is just west of SLC and sits on the Great Salt Lake. It’s very famous for the bison herd that lives there.
It took a little over an hour to drive in from Park City and I parked the van at a grocery store – we decided to take one car in because it would be easier.
We stopped off at a few different lookout points shortly after getting on the island and there were some small hikes to do at each one. We made some lunch afterward – I had some bratwurst and we BBQed those up.
After lunch, we were ready to try to find the bison and we started off for the south side of the island. We ended up finding them but they were off in the distance and we couldn’t really get any closer to them. We did get to see a pronghorn deer up close and personal so that ended up being a good trade-off.
We continued south and checked out the historical ranch that is down there. It is always cool to walk through the historical buildings and see what life was like on the island 150 years ago.
There was a small little forested area near the ranch and it was nice to chill in the shade among the trees. We continued further south and hit another hike to a really nice lookout point.
We moved back towards the exit and took a walk down to the beach to check out the lake later in the day.
The water wasn’t looking all that great and no one stuck their foot in. There were tons of sand fleas and it was actually pretty cool (they don’t bite). You could walk into a bunch of them and they would move out of your way. Kind of like you were sand flea Moses or something.
From there we chilled for sunset and then headed back over the bridge and got a bite to eat. From there it was time to say goodbye to Patrick – he was heading the opposite way.
It was actually really nice meeting Pat at the hostel. He is older – about 60 years old – but we had a fair bit of meaningful conversations about history, politics, mental health, and life in general. I will definitely try to stay in contact with him.
I slept in the van outside the hostel that night because we got back into Park City fairly late. I didn’t want to spend the money to get a room for the night. I had breakfast and then I was off.
On the way out I met this guy from Taiwan and we figured out we were going in the same direction. He had booked a campsite near this hot spring that I wanted to go to and we decided to spend the night there together.
I moved towards this hiking spot south of Park City. About 3 miles into an alpine lake. I gained roughly three thousand feet in elevation. So it was mostly uphill. It was fairly challenging but really worth it. The views were really stunning – both the actual lake and looking back into the valley below.
From there it was just a matter of driving to the campsite and hanging with Leon for the night.