Spring Break Trip to Antelope Island

I'm exhausted.  We spent the day at Antelope Island (well, the afternoon and evening- we didn't get out as early as planned) and it was great.  Except for the biting gnats.  Jeremy had been checking the website to see if there was any problem with the biting gnats (we decided not to go last Summer because apparently they were so bad).  When we went during Fall Break there was no problem with bugs.  Jeremy didn't check the website this morning (not until we got home tonight).  Apparently they mentioned on there that the biting gnats had hatched.
Luckily they were only bad in certain parts of the island, like where we were first going to go hiking and where we were later going to go to the beach.  Yeah, that wasn't pleasant.  But there wasn't a problem on the other side of the island where we took a little hike and by the ranch we visited again.

It was still a great trip.  We saw lots of different animals- more than last time we were there.
We were able to sing, "Home on the Range," because we saw bison (buffalo), pronghorns (antelope), and deer.

We also saw rabbits.
And lots of different birds including a few we need to identify (too tired to look them up tonight).  We saw one running down the road and how it moved made me think of Compsognathus from Jurassic Park. 

Several birds posed nicely for us.
We saw plenty of bugs.
We even saw a coyote on our way back along the causeway.  I couldn't get a still picture but was able to get a video of it.
We also saw lots and lots of horses.  Several people riding horses passed us as we were hiking.  And passed the bison that were coming down the hill as we were eating lunch in the van.  That was fun to watch the bison as they got closer to us while we were sitting safely in the van.  Our timing was good, too, because as we were about to drive off from that spot, we saw a bison walking along the trail we had been on a little while before.
It was a great day on the island but we won't be going again too soon... because of the biting gnats.

Fall Break Day 3

We've been wanting to go to Antelope Island for years.  Every time we pass Antelope Drive (which isn't that often since it's a bit north of where we usually travel), we mention how we want to go to Antelope Island sometime.
Well, we finally got our chance.  For Day 3 of Fall Break, we made the trip out there- to the island in the middle of the Great Salt Lake.  We were not disappointed.  We headed up to the Visitor's Center first of all and as we were driving up the hill, there on the side of the road as if greeting us was an antelope (pronghorn is the accurate name, or "Antelocapra americana" for my brother, but it's what we call the American antelope).  That was fun.

It was a fun day.  We got to walk a little, drive a lot, visit a ranch,

and see lots and lots of bison (what some people would call buffalo, "Bison bison" for my brother, American buffalo for others).

There was quite a bit of singing, "Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam and the deer and the antelope play."  We didn't see any deer on this trip, but we saw those buffalo and antelope (more than just the one by the visitor's center).  Though Jeremy did mention to me Antelope Island is where "our dears" and the antelope play.  We played a lot.

There was still so much we could have done but we ran out of time because we had to get everyone home before they got too cranky.  We could have done some hiking, played on the beach, driven around some more places.  There were some really pretty views from places we did go.

When I asked the kids what they enjoyed about Antelope Island, Jr. said he liked finding new paths.  We went on one around the visitor's center.

Nichole said she liked seeing the bison.  Me, too.

Jr. Jr. said he liked playing in the sand and seeing the beach.  We had lunch at a pavilion near one of the beaches.  There was sand all around the pavilion.  Apparently, Jr. Jr. didn't get enough of it at the dunes on Thursday.

It was a good family day.