I stopped at Antelope Island State Park, near Salt Lake City, for a couple of nights, on my way to Colorado. For years my friend Beth had ridden there when she lived in Utah, especially every October for the Buffalo Roundup. There are bison, antelope, and bighorn sheep to potentially spot while on this island. She had told me that it was a must see, so I figured this was my chance.
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| Bison on Antelope Island State Park. |
There is more than one camping area but there are only two sites that allow horses, #13 and #14 in the White Rock Campground. As I was making my way over there, I drove past several bison grazing, while tourists stopped to gawk at them.
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| Site #14 at White Rock Campground. |
The horse sites are large with plenty of room for two rigs side by side, there is a shaded picnic table and a fire ring, and one good sized corral in each spot. The camp spots are in a long line, they are quite spread out, and there are several bathrooms in the line. The two horse sites are at the end, and there is a large day use area on either side of the campground. They want you to remove your manure from the corrals, but there is no manure bin. This is not a cheap place to camp, it was $42.00 a night, not including the $8.00 reservation fee.
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| Spot #13, next to one of the day use areas. |
Everything was going quite swimmingly, until I realized the one rather important thing that was missing...water. I did not have enough water left in my barrel, so I looked at the map and saw that there was a dump station at Bridger Bay Campground, not too far away, so I left my pony in her corral and drove back the way I had come in.
After filling my water, I got back to camp and settled in for the evening, only to be assaulted by several million mosquito's. I found it an odd place, and time of the year, for these annoying pests to be out and about.
At one point I noticed a few antelope had wandered into the area, so I got my camera out and took some photos, this particular antelope was collared/tagged.
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| A tourist and an antelope. |
The next morning as soon as it warmed up just a little bit, the mosquito's came back to bother my horse. She gets very annoyed and won't stop moving, trying to get away from them, so I got her out, sprayed her down yet again, and got ready to ride.
By the way, I texted Beth while I was riding and asked her why she hadn't mentioned the skeeter population, and she said she had never encountered any there.
The map showed some nice long loop rides so I started off on the first one, the Split Rock Loop, and once I had climbed up quite a bit in elevation, the mosquito's dispersed. I saw one lone hiker in the morning, and there had been some guys with horses that had pulled in right before I tacked up, but otherwise it was a pretty quiet place to be.
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| Starting to climb up in elevation. This lone tree has a hitching rail underneath it. |
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| Heading to the Split Rock Loop. |
There are great views down onto Salt Lake, and all across the island, once on top of the loop trail.
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| Rina enjoys the view. |
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| On the Split Rock Loop. |
After completing that loop it seemed like a good idea to do the long side of the White Rock Loop as well, which eventually got me back to camp. This trail is pretty easy, but the Slick Rock Loop was slightly more technical in some areas. All the junctions are signed and the trails are well marked. This is one of those places where you could really move out and cover a lot of ground, if you wanted. Oddly, I saw no bison on this entire day.
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| On the White Rock Loop. |
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| A couple of riders way down below. |
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| Almost done with the White Rock Loop. |
Later that evening I managed to have a phone convo with a friend, there is plenty of cell service just up the nearby hill, but it came and went at camp, which is in a bay. Then the mosquito's returned with a vengeance, and I retreated into my trailer.
I didn't have time to do every trail on the island, but it seemed like a good plan to drive over to the south end the next morning. Once you get to the road junction, it is 11 miles to the horse trailer parking area across from Fielding Garr Ranch.
As I was driving, the sun was rising and I found the buffalo! They were everywhere, solo males just hanging out, napping or grazing, large herds eating, or having dust baths, or large herds in the middle of the road impeding my forward progress.
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| Early morning bison on the road. |
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| Many many bison, on the south side of the island. |
I would hope it goes without saying that you are not allowed to approach the bison or piss them off in any way. They will kill you!
But they are mellow if left alone and do not mind vehicles, and ponies, going right by them.
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| Time for a salty dust bath. |
I parked at the day use which is not at all level, so I had to turn my fridge off until I got back. From there you actually just ride down the road, which is called the South Island Trail, to the end of the island at Unicorn Point. There is another trail you can do from there as well, called the Sentry Loop, but I only had time to do the one. There were less mosquito's on that side of the island, although many more flies.
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| On the South Island Trail. |
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| A solo male. |
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| Unicorn Point, at the far end of the island. |
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| A unicorn, at Unicorn Point. |
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| One more buffalo pic, just because. |
The historic Fielding Garr Ranch, across the road from the equestrian parking, looked interesting. I was thinking of riding through there when I got back, but at that time of the day, there were a few tourists milling about, and I had to hit the road anyway. This was a really fun place to ride and there were several more trails I didn't do. There are five large equestrian parking areas, so that you can hit the trails from a few different areas, definitely a very horse friendly place.
I had one more night camping out in the Utah desert, and then the next day I drove into Colorado, to my new home! Yup, I moved to Colorado, so stay tuned for many more adventures in this state, as well as all surrounding states!
