Hey friends, welcome back to Grand Adventure!
I'm your host Marc Guido, and we're not going to be traveling yet for a couple of more weeks
but before we leave Utah we wanted to take advantage of bringing you
to one of our favorite places right in our own backyard:
Antelope Island, right in the middle of the Great Salt Lake. So stay tuned!
Forty-two square-mile Antelope Island sits in the middle of Utah's
Great Salt Lake northwest of Salt Lake City,
connected to the mainland by a seven-mile causeway.
From here on the island it's hard to believe that
the suburban bustle of the Wasatch Front is only seven miles away,
for Antelope Island might as well be in another world.
Although it was once considered for a national park, that never happened
and a Utah state park today encompasses the entire island,
to preserve its natural beauty and historical heritage.
The state purchased the northern part of the island in 1969,
and acquired the remainder in 1981 when the state park was established.
The shallow Great Salt Lake is all that remains today of the ancient Lake Bonneville
that 15,000 years ago occupied much of current day Utah,
and was nearly the size of Lake Michigan.
Changing climate over thousands of years dried up most of the lake,
leaving today's Great Salt Lake as a remnant.
It's a terminal lake with no outlet, the fourth largest such lake in the world,
and minerals washed into the lake by its feeding rivers
results in water that's far saltier than sea water
as the water evaporates and leaves the minerals behind.
It's too salty to support fish, and brine shrimp are all that survive in its waters.
Native American artifacts show that Antelope
Island was occupied by prehistoric peoples more than 6,000 years ago,
but explorers John Fremont and Kit Carson were the
first non-natives known to have visited Antelope Island in 1845.
Although it's surrounded by salt water much more saline than the ocean,
an abundance of fresh-water springs on the island supported a few early settlers,
along with pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep, American bison,
badgers, coyotes, bobcat, and mule deer,
as well as an enormous number of waterfowl.
The extensive native grassland on Antelope Island today supports a large herd of American bison.
John Dooly bought Antelope Island for one million dollars in 1870,
with the intention of raising sheep.
However, he also introduced an American bison
herd to the island in an attempt to develop a private hunting preserve.
He brought four bulls, four cows and four calves to Antelope Island by boat in 1893,
when there were fewer than 1,000 of the once-prolific
animals left in all of North America.
Today the island's bison herd numbers between 500 and 700 head,
making it one of the largest and oldest publicly owned American bison herds in the country.
It's a gorgeous spring day, so Zoe and I are going to bring
you along on one of Antelope Island's most popular hikes.
However, it's important to get a good night's sleep before you go hiking,
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Numerous trails cross-cross Antelope Island for hikers, mountain bikers and horseback riders,
including to the top of 6,596-foot Frary Peak, the highest point on the island.
Road biking is also popular on the island's paved thoroughfares,
and e-bike rentals are available at the island end of the causeway.
Zoe and I are going to sample one of the island's most popular hiking trails,
the short but moderately strenuous climb to the
top of Buffalo Point at the island's northwestern end.
This brief hike is well worth the effort,
for the view from the top of Buffalo Point is nothing short stunning,
encompassing many of the major and minor islands dotting the broader part of the Great Salt Lake.
Should you wish to stay on the island,
there are two state park RV campgrounds located on Antelope Island.
With 64 well-spaced sites, Bridger Bay is the
largest and most developed of the island's two campgrounds.
The lower loop, sites 1 through 26, are dry camping with pavilions and grills.
The upper loop, added recently, features an additional 36 sites
with water and 50-amp/30-amp electrical hookups.
Sites are reservable and cost $40 per night for hookups, and $30 per night for dry camping.
The best time of year to camp on Antelope Island is spring or fall,
for biting brine flies are prevalent here during the summer months
when temperatures can also become intense, with virtually no shade available.
Flush bathrooms and showers are available in both loops,
and the upper loop includes a modern, well-designed two-bay dump station.
The island's other RV campground at White Rock Bay
features 20 dry campsites with incredible spacing between them,
including two equestrian sites. Sites here cost $40 per night.
We're going to take a quick ad break to pay the bills,
and when we come back after the break we'll bring you to
Antelope Island's historic Fielding Garr Ranch.
We're driving south down the island's east side to where the pavement ends at Fielding Garr Ranch.
Antelope Island was originally used as a ranch for cattle and sheep
when the first Mormon pioneers settled the Salt Lake Valley.
In fact, the LDS Church controlled the
island ranch for more than two decades in the mid-19th Century.
Fielding Garr, the island's first white settler,
was sent to Antelope Island by the LDS Church to establish a ranch for the church tithing herds.
Here on the island's east side, the Fielding Garr Ranch was built near
the strongest and most reliable of the island's 40 freshwater springs,
and today includes the 1848 ranch house that's
Utah's oldest Anglo building still standing on its original foundation.
After Dooly bought Antelope Island, the ranch became one of the largest and most
industrialized sheep ranching operations in the western U.S.
Guided horseback trips to view the island's bison are available from the ranch.
So we truly hope that you've enjoyed exploring Utah's Antelope Island with us!
This gives you a great taste of the kind of episodes that Grand
Adventure puts out during the spring, summer, and fall months.
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