Wandering Around: Antelope Island State Park, Utah

October 24-November 4, 2015

Thanks to Wheeling It for recommending this park; it was the 2nd or 3rd best in their annual list of best campsites for 2014. Bridger Bay Campground, where we stayed, had large, widely-spaced sites with shelters and fire rings…and few other campers! We had a view of Salt Lake with low mountains all around. Very quiet, with hiking trails nearby. The whole island is only about 6 miles from a retail-heavy suburb of Salt Lake City, but because it’s connected only by a causeway a little wider than the road itself, we feel quite isolated. The best of both worlds: isolation in a beautiful place, and civilization when we needed a restaurant or a thrift store binge. No water or electric hookups, but we don’t need them. There are pit toilets, and about a mile away, running water and hot showers. The island is home to a 300+ bison herd that roams freely. A sign at the park’s entrance says, “Bison can be dangerous”. OK. Thanks. We did a bit of hiking here, along with exploring a working ranch and the bison corrals, where the bison are rounded up every fall to be culled, checked for pregnancy, and given inoculations, etc. On one of the hikes, Leah was so absorbed in the natural beauty that she tripped over a protruding rock she didn’t see. Took a pretty hard spill that injured her knee…and we were both worried for a few minutes that the damage might be worse. However, she was able to get to her feet—with help—then limp the 2 miles or so back to the trailer, where she iced and elevated the knee. It took over a month, but the knee has healed fairly well.

The next day we visited the bison corral, where each animal is herded through a series of enclosures and temporarily immobilized while volunteers administer medications, check for pregnancy (by shoving an arm up to the elbow!), and apply a tag to the ear, before releasing it again. We probably would have stayed at Antelope Island a bit longer, but wanted to visit Zion before we headed to Las Vegas on November 15th to meet the kids for our two-week, Christmas-in-November visit. This is definitely a park we’d come back to; the sunsets were quite lovely.

Click on any image to see it larger and in greater detail

From the Causeway on the way over to the Island

From a hike

From our campsite

From our campsite. The campsite dead center is our closest neighbour.

From near our campsite

From our campsite

This guy wandered into our camp area...not this close, though.

Immobilized to check for pregnancy. They say it doesn't hurt???

From our campsite

The hiker

From our campsite

Civilization across the bay

November 4-9—Sand Hollow State Park, Utah

We left Antelope Island heading for Zion, but a check of the weather revealed quite low overnight temps that could freeze our pipes. After a bit of research, we decided on Sand Hollow State Park, about 1/2 an hour from both Zion and St. George. Arrived after dark and set up in the rain. Woke up to sun and warmth, and a quite lovely campground, with large spaces and good views of a lake and mountains. We had electricity and water hook-ups, so we could use our furnace, and even our electric heater, in case the furnace acted up again. It had failed at Antelope Island, but had been working fine for a few days, now. Fingers crossed!

After driving the 20 minutes to Zion from Sand Hollow, we took a paved walk along the Virgin River, and it proved doable for Leah, even with her ailing knee. Anywhere you look in Zion is beautiful-to-spectacular, and this walk was no different. Even on the free shuttle—no cars in Zion Canyon: all hikers take the free shuttle to their chosen trailhead—our necks got sore from looking up at the sheer red cliffs on either side of the river. From the shuttle window, we saw a few flyspeck-sized climbers ascending the walls. Looked absolutely terrifying! Good for them.

Next day, acting on a tip from a local photographer, we took the road to Kolob Canyon, a kind of back way into some lightly visited areas of the National Park. Good tip! Very few people, and stunning scenery. We did a walk or two, but drove most of the way, stopping on the way back so I could set up the tripod and get some magic hour photos. Up at the top, near a mountain lake at about 8000 feet, we saw an enormous bird, bigger than anything either of us had ever seen. After watching it for a while with binoculars, we identified it as a California Condor—nine foot wingspan, 4 feet tall, head to tail. Felt lucky to have seen it, as later we learned that there are only about 400 in the world. Unfortunately, it was too far away for pictures.

On the way back to the trailer, we stopped at Buffalo Trading Company, where Leah (and later I) got to know Bob, the owner. Leah ended up buying some new earrings from him. They were nice, but she bought them because of what she learned about him and his relationship with the Zuni Indian tribe. Apparently, when he was young, he stayed with a Zuni family for the summer—he was from New York, but his family had met a Zuni family while they were on vacation in Utah. The Zuni family had invited the 15 year old Bob to spend the summer with them, and his family had agreed. That began a relationship with the natives that bloomed into admiration and love for them and their values. He now sells native jewelry and crafts from his store. He says he only takes about 10%, whereas most retailers get 40% or so. He even adopted two native daughters and raised them as his own. He showed us Fathers’ day cards. I photographed Leah with him. Nice guy.

I spoke to a another guy who was wearing a “Vote for Bernie” T-shirt and sitting by himself at a table. He was a Vietnam vet who’d been sprayed with Agent Orange, and had been an environmental activist ever since. He said he’d lived in Washington, DC for many years trying to get compensation for vets like himself, because of Agent Orange. He is now cynical and bitter, and lives up in the mountains by himself—he doesn’t like people much and has given up on them. He knew quite a bit about American and Canadian politics, as I discovered when I mentioned I hoped Bernie would win. He said,”Bernie’s great, but he doesn’t have a chance.” But he really lit up when I told him how pleased I was that Harper was defeated. He knew what a terrible leader Harper has been, and he was able to give examples. Impressive.

An interesting afternoon.