Antelope Island State Park | Great Salt Lake |Utah

This is one of the many bison statues that are placed around the park.  The Bison were not native to this island but were imported back in the 1800s.  A couple of the other statues are shown below.

It's hard to get a decent picture of a bison since they always have their head to the ground eating.  I did catch this one being a little bit lazy.  If annoyed they can run over 30 miles an hour, so I wasn't getting too close.  They can weigh up to 2,000 pounds

This next photo shows the causeway coming to the island, which is 7 miles long.  The island itself is 15 miles long and 5 miles wide.

There is the marina when you first come onto the island but since there's not much boat traffic, it was a little bit empty.  People say there's not much boating on the lake anyway, possibly because there's no fish because of the salt content.

I was surprised to find seagulls here, and then I saw white pelicans.  There are a lot of migratory birds that stop off here at the Great Salt Lake.

 One day while I was touring the island I saw something in the road ahead so I started to slow down.  I let the truck idle forward so I wouldn't scare these two.  They just stood and stared back at me for a while and then they decided to go off  into the meadow.

On another day I saw these two antelope in the middle of the field so I stopped the truck and got out to take a photo.  I was surprised when they started to walk toward the road where I was standing and they crossed right in front of me.

There is always great scenery around this island as well as multiple hiking trails.

This is a pronghorn antelope that was nice enough to pose for me for a couple minutes.

Jack rabbits are all over the place but they're hard to catch.  I sneaked up on this guy just about sunset.

I found another wildflower that I had not seen before.

They have fantastic sunsets here every night - with or without clouds.

The Fielding Garr Ranch | Antelope Island State Park | Utah

This farm was in operation for 133 years, starting in 1848.  The Mormon church was involved with it from then until 1875.  

As you can see, there are numerous artifacts and relics from the farming days.  Including the following camper that they took out into the fields for sheep shearing.

In past years they have raised cattle as well as sheep, now there is a herd of almost 700 bison, which are herded together about once a year.  Some are sold off or some are made into Buffalo burgers.  I talked to a Ranger about the difference between buffalo and bison.  He told me that there are no actual buffalo is the States, what are called buffalo are actually bison.  The name "buffalo burger" is still used, even at the grill within the park.

The island was changed into a state park in 1981 and the farm is not a working farm, but the buildings have been refurbished and now the entire grounds are a museum.