Antelope Island

Utah is an amazing place to sight-see.

Situated on the western side of the Rocky Mountains it has unbelievable landscapes that have been preserved in

5 National Parks, 6 National Monuments, 2 National Historic Sights, 9 National Forests, and 42 State Parks.

We spent our second Saturday in Utah visiting Antelope Island State Park; the largest island in the Great Salt Lake and just minutes from Salt Lake City.


Antelope Island has artifacts showing that people lived there as long as 6000 years ago. It also has the oldest permanent residence in Utah still standing-the Fielding Garr ranch home built in 1848.




The island is now the home to free-roaming herds of bison(remnants of a herd once ranched), bighorn sheep, mule deer, and proghorn antelope. It is also home to bobcats, coyotes, reptiles, shorebirds, waterfowl, raptors and chukars.

The Island is 15 miles long and 4.5 miles wide. The highest point is Frary Peak at 6,595 feet above sea level. Antelope Island is connected to the shore by a causeway found about halfway between Salt Lake City and Ogden UT. (20 minutes from our home)

We arrived in late afternoon after taking care of some weekly chores so we only had a few hours to explore the island before the causeway closed for dark.(winter hours)

We went first to the visitor center where we learned all the above information and a lot about the geology and about the Great Salt Lake itself. The lake is the largest natural lake west of the Mississippi-75 miles long and 28 miles wide. But it is only 33 feet deep at it's lowest and this varies with the seasons. It is fed by 4 rivers that carry tons of minerals into the lake each year and there is no natural outlet so water leaves by evaporation. This makes the lake very salty; between 4 and 28% in different parts of the lake (compare this to the ocean which is 3% salinity)




The lake was low on the day we visited as the snowmelt in the surrounding mountains had not yet begun.

From the Visitors Center on the North end of the island we drove to Buffalo Point, a peak of 4785 ft on the northern half of the island. We parked our car at the concession stand and followed the trail to the top of the peak, where we saw great views of the island and the Great Salt Lake.

On the drive up and the drive back we passed bison on the side of the road, which is probably why it is called Buffalo point

Walking along the top of Buffalo Point we were amazed to find hoofprints from the buffalo as well as buffalo pies indicating that the large animals wandered way up to the point and even wound their way among the many rock formations scattered all over the top of the point.

We stayed soaking up the sunshine and enjoying the views despite a brisk wind blowing off the snowy peaks and across the partially frozen lake.



From Buffalo Point we tried to drive the rest of the scenic roads around the island but the slow speed limit and the setting sun combined to force us to turn around before we had made it to the southern tip of the island and the historic ranch house.

We kept our eyes open but only saw bison grazing and a few birds.

Approaching dusk found us heading back out the causeway and saying good-bye to Antelope Island. Then off to our right we spotted coyotes moving across the frozen bay of the Great Salt Lake right next to our car. We were thrilled to get several pictures. A very nice way to end our visit to Antelope Island.