The Great Salt Lake, Salt Lake City, Utah

After an S-shaped drive through the northern Rockies in Wyoming, we hauled ourselves across a bridge to Antelope Island State Park on the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Though Adam has been to Utah before, neither of us had ever been to this ecological wonder. Here's what we did during the three day, two night stay on the Great Salt Lake.

Wildlife

Antelope Island is the largest island in the Great Salt Lake and is home to a herd of 600 American Bison. The inland parts of the island are also home to coyote and long-horned antelope. The shorelines are full of a variety of migratory and stationary birds. This, unfortunately for us, was also the season for a species of biting gnats. These bugs were the size of a fruit fly and had just hatched before we arrived on the island. We saw the most of these bugs, but we also got to see an antelope, several bison, and a lot of interesting birds. They were really bad on our hike and we regret not wearing our bug head nets. Adam looked like he had chicken pox on his face that night because of the tiny bites. If you plan to go to the island in May, we recommend bug nets as bug spray is not effective against the bugs.

Camping

Antelope Island State Park has three campgrounds all with different equipment allowed (i.e. tent only, larger campers). Some of the campgrounds have full water and electric hookup and others have only pit toilets for amenities in the campground. There are a total of 52 campsites and all are reasonably priced for a state park. We stayed at White Rock Bay Campground, situated right next to a trailhead and the beach. We had a covered picnic table, pit toilets nearby, and a sunken campfire ring.

The weather was nice enough that we were able to keep the van door open, when the bugs weren't bad, most of the day. We had a massive campsite so Acadia enjoyed running around and sniffing the beach grasses. After being on the road for four days, it was nice to have the same place to stay for a few days. We took frequent walks around the campground. We had a campfire one night and played games out until it got too chilly to stay outside. It was a nice place to stay and we recommend camping at this park to anyone looking to be right on the lake.

Hiking

Our second day there was spent on an 11-mile hike. We took the trail from the campground, Bone Road Trail, to the Elephant Head Spur Trail. The hike went through a valley and up to the top of Elephant Head, a fascinating rock outcropping overlooking the lake. We spent some time on the top of the trail for a snack and a bit of yoga.

Swimming

We were able to walk out to the lake and wade in the water. The walk from the parking lot, just on the other side of a beach dune, out to the water was about a mile. The walk was entirely on a mix of sand and salt, a very unique feeling we had yet to walk in (as you can see in this picture). The temperatures were in the mid-60s with a breeze so it was a little chilly. We were a bit hesitant to get in the water for fear of freezing our toes. The water was warmer than the air. Madi thought it felt like bath water but Adam didn't think it was that warm. Acadia didn't care about the temperature; she ran around the water like a maniac, zooming and splashing us like a fish out of water. She had the time of her life. We were completely covered in white salt residue after the water evaporated off our clothes and skin. Madi spent an hour back at the campsite pulling chunks of dried sand out of Acadia's fur.

Having to walk a mile out to the water is not an uncommon event for current park visitors. As the shoreline falls back, fields of white salty sand are left behind and habitat for shorebirds is lost. The Great Salt Lake has been losing water volume exponentially over the last few decades. A park ranger and a few articles taught us that the water is changing due to upstream diversion of freshwater streams and rivers. The regions upstream from the Great Salt Lake are diverting upwards of 3.3 trillion liters of water every year. As the lake is fed by these streams, it has been the victim of increased household, industrial, and agricultural water consumption.

We enjoyed our stay at Antelope Island State Park just west of Salt Lake City, Utah. Like we said last week, it's sometimes the more local-level parks that amaze and impress us the most. However, our next stop is a well-known part of the National Park Service, Lake Mead National Recreation Area.