Thompson Springs | Utah

Antelope!  They seem to wander around near the train tracks in this little community.  They were a little shy, but they did pose long enough for me to get this shot.

This hotel has seen it's best days, although when I was there taking this photo, two men were peeking in the windows at the mess inside.  They told me they were thinking of making it a little hotel again for tourists.  I hope they love lots of hard work!

Considering the age of this car, it doesn't look all that bad......    This was right outside the RV Park I stayed at. 

This one didn't fare so well......  But it's older!

Schoolhouse built in 1907, nicely refurbished.

There are multiple abandoned and derelict buildings here.

Spooky on an overcast day.

I have no idea if it's true, but someone said this is the café that was in the movie "Thelma and Louise".  Looks way more interesting inside than outside!

Other buildings are just shells.

I'm not really fond of the purple color here.......

One of the residents has yard that looks more like a mini-museum - he had everything back here.

 

Mountains look like they are melting into plains here.  

Rocks are multicolored here.  I think I remember someone telling me that the green rocks have copper in them.

A restaurant, show place was nearby, but unfortunately it was all closed up and looking abandoned.

The weather did this a few days while I was here, but only got a few sprinkles one day.

This is the third Boot Hill that I've seen.  I don't think this one has anyone really there. 

Red rock is everywhere near Moab, and it is stunning.

Clayton Lake State Park | New Mexico

 

This is Clayton Lake, and to the right are what's left of old cottonwood trees that were alive before they started building the dam. 

 

 

This is the type of land that I drove by to get to Clayton, totally meadow, ranch land and lots of cows.  I was lucky enough to get a couple of photos of antelopes.  I certainly saw more than these, but there are some places you just can't stop for a photo!  I was also lucky to see a couple of cowboys rounding up some of the cows - yes, just like they used to - on horseback!

 

The lake was beautiful, when I could catch it without the monsoon clouds. 

While building the dam here in the 1950s, water washed away some dirt and left ancient dinosaur tracks in the hardened soil.  Supposedly there were multiple varieties here and there are over 500 prints.  It rained the day before, and I think it shows in the photos better with the water.

I thought this was interesting also, dried mud cracks that were petrified under all that top dirt that got washed away.  This was dried puddles along the shoreline of an ancient ocean.

Town is interesting, with some distinctive buildings.....  The library does have a new building.

This looks very much like the "wild west".

This one is interesting, I have no idea what this was when it was inhabited.

Sunsets gave us some pretty color on the scenery.

 

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.