Cross Country Trip ~ Part Seven

DAY SEVEN

Day seven of our trip still in Ogden, Utah, we drove over to Antelope Island, which is the largest of the 10 islands in the great Salt Lake. 

Driving out of Ogden ... too cool of a shot NOT to share!

Salt Lake was surprisingly, very smelly, and not a good kinda smell.  Now, that does not in any way take away from its beauty ... it is absolutely beautiful and very different from any lake I've ever been to (not talking bout any of Georgia's manmade lakes here ya'll ... I have been over a few of the Great Lakes, been to Lake Ontario and walked beside Lake Tahoe) ... this lake was as calm and smooth as glass, literally ya'll, so the reflection of the surrounding mountains was amazingly awesome!  Mirror images! 

See all that lavender?  Absolutely beautiful!

I was expecting the drive over to the island to be by way of bridge (or ferry) since it is an island, but it was by way of a causeway, thus we smelled the dang thing right away ... kind of turned my tummy but I tried to overlook that seeing the beauty of it.

There's those beautiful orange flowers ~ up close!

Can you see them ... in the distance?

This might have just been the highlight of our entire trip ... remember me saying in my Kansas post how it would be so cool if we saw buffalo, uh, I mean bison, stampeeding across the range?  Well we didn't see them stampedeing BUT we did see them living wild and free on Antelope Island and DID get up close and personal with at least one albiet with a whole herd off in the distance ...close enough to stampede if they wanted to.  Well ... to be honest, 10 or so yards was close up and personal enough for me ... didn't want to piss that big ol' bison off, though even at that distance he didn't seem to even notice us, seriously!!!  I'm pretty sure though if we had tried to move in to 'pet' him ... it wouldn't have turned out well.  REMINDER: Bison, like any wildlife, are pretty awesome up close and personal BUT can be very dangerous if they feel threatened!!!  Very cool though ... especially in light of fact that bison, uh, I mean bufflo, are mentioned in a few of our country's patriot songs. 

Now, ain't that just sooooo cool?

Too cool for words!!!

We also saw Antelope (hence the name of the island), however, they were too far away to get a good photo and there were only a handful of them.

There was some interesting and different sort of terrain and vegetation on the island ... very pretty ... some neat hiking trails too (though no trees for shade).

We parked and walked down to the 'beach' which I tell ya didn't seem quite as far seeing it from the parking lot but it was a hike and it got smellier and smellier the closer we got ... I had wanted to stick my toes in the water but the closest I could stand to be was about 4 feet from the water ... the smell was just unbearable!!! 

The Beach ~ quite a hike out there!

Interesting to note here ... it was Memorial Day and there were only a handful, literally, of boats out on the lake, most of which, were canoes or paddle boats.  I learned that the only living creatures in Salt Lake are brine shrimp and algae ... makes you wonder why early settlers settled here since you cannot drink the water and there are no fish for food (since back then people lived off the land).  It is beautiful though and lots and lots of great hiking and outdoorsy stuff to do ... I will be back (and not just cause my son lives there)!!!  

Okay ~ now to hike back LOL

We certainly enjoyed our afternoon there!

Next up, after our visit with our son and his family ... Grand Canyon National Park!

STAY TUNED!!!