For the first time in memorable history I had an entire Saturday to myself. What does a mildly-obsessed amateur photog do with a free weekend? Yeah. He grabs the Nikon and hits the road. I opted for a day trip to Antelope Island.

Antelope Island is a 42 square mile island in the Great Salt Lake. It is the largest of the 10 islands in the Great Salt Lake. The first non-native visitors to the island were John C. Fremont and Kit Carson. The native peoples had told them that the island had plenty of fresh water and lots of Pronghorn Antelope. It is said that Fremont and Carson hunted Pronghorn on the island and named it Antelope Island in honor of the abundance of game.

Getting to the island takes you across a seven-mile causeway cutting through Farmington Bay. Due to the salinity of the water and the alkalinity of the soil its safe to say that this stump is not native to the island. Nonetheless, spotting it in the mud flats alongside the causeway demanded a stop. It even warranted slogging through ankle-deep mud to get a few shots. What it didn’t justify was trudging through the slippery mud, lining up a nice shot and discovering that my camera’s SD card was in my laptop, at home; 40 miles away. And that I loaned my spare card to someone who never returned it. After a 10-mile drive back to Syracuse, a stop at Walmart, and returning to line up the shot again I was able to capture the photo above.

White Rock Beach sits near the Northwest corner of the island. Above the beach, Buffalo Point climbs to great views of the beach and lake to the West and the Wasatch Mountains to the East. Its a short, steep hike that is well worth the views.

Fielding Garr was a Mormon pioneer and a widower with nine children. In 1948, one year after the Mormon pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, Garr was asked to go to the island and establish a ranch for raising sheep and cattle. The first building on the island, a small, adobe house was built that year and still stands on its original foundations. It is the oldest structure built by europeans still standing on its own foundations in the state of Utah. For photography buffs the ranch offers an abundance of farm life shots, rusty machinery and shoreline opportunities.

On  weekends, especially in warmer months, the ranch can get fairly busy. Early morning or evening are the best times to beat the crowds and get the best light. Going in January, like I did, also thins the crowds.

I highly recommend wandering some of the paths and trails that meander along the shoreline east of the ranch. The views of the Wasatch Range are spectacular. There’s a good chance of seeing wildlife such as waterfowl, birds of prey, bison, pronghorn (antelope) coyotes and even badgers. Some years ago a brush fire must have gone through the area. It left a scattering of dead and burnt trees among the reeds and grass. They make excellent photographic elements as horizon breaks and for framing a shot

I need to go back to Antelope Island and explore more of the dirt roads and hiking trails. Most of the human traffic on the island stays to the north end where the ranch and the visitors center are located. I would also like to be on the island for sunset over the Great Salt Lake.

My only regret from this trip was that my pictures of bison didn’t turn out blog-worthy. Oh well. Just another good reason to go back soon.

Fun Fact: Even though they are commonly called Antelope, they are not actually Antelope. Their true name is Pronghorn. Early settlers to the western U.S. confused them with African Antelope. The same is true of Buffalo. Their real name is American Bison.

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