Antelope Island and the Salty Lake

It was a huge bone of contention in my relationship that the last time I was in Utah, The Photographer refused to take me to see the Great Salt Lake. He wasn’t interested and his sister said it smelled bad (which isn’t totally a lie…it’s actually the flood plains that stink…), but I really needed to know if it was salty and, if so, just how salty it was. Well, this time around, I won.

Antelope Island is a state park on the Great Salt Lake. It is home to antelopes (duh.), about 600 buffalo (yum), beaches, a ranch, some campgrounds, hiking trails, and great views. The animals more or less roam freely and the island is open from sun up to sun down for all to explore…

This is a panorama The Photographer stitched together of White Rock Bay. It looks better here. But I didn’t take my camera, and it’s more fun with pictures.

We didn’t really know what to expect heading out there. It was kind of on a whim the day before we left for Moab, because I really, really wanted to see the salty lake. We did a bit of hiking and some wildlife photo stalking…We weren’t really prepared to do any intense hiking and we only had a few hours, so we didn’t get to see everything. But there were antelopes (kind of mangy looking), buffalo, and one very salty body of water.

We walked out a bit into the lake…Apparently its salt content varies by location, but parts of it have up to 25% salinity, which is more than the ocean.  I didn’t really get to test the extra buoyancy, due to lack of swimsuit and the fact that it was about knee deep for a long way out.  I also learned that it has no fish. The largest living organism in Great Salt Lake is brine shrimp, which are tiny.  It’s crazy to think that there is this vast expanse of water with basically nothing in it…

There is also a picture of me tasting the lake water on my finger, but I don’t have it. Let me just say, EW. And speaking of ew…

We had to cross a causeway to get on and off the island. Most of it was over flood plains, not water. But there were a whole lot of sand flies…they sounded like rain hitting the windshield and required one hell of a carwash.

So that’s all from my photo tour of Utah…le sigh. I love vacations. Anyone else have fun photos of their adventures to share?