Another stop at Antelope Island.

I’m not sure if these are horned grebes or western grebes. Can anyone confirm?

Tons of northern shovelers along the causeway into Antelope Island on our second trip.

We saw a lot more bison and longhorns on our second trip that week.

After leaving Bear River Refuge, we decided to stop by Antelope Island again before heading back to Salt Lake City. We drove around to the other side of the island this time and hiked up to Buffalo Point.  From this view, you can see around most of the island. We could see a storm heading our way and just made it back to our car before the bottom fell out.

SkyWatch Friday

“Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam, Where the deer and the antelope play.”

Zooming in on the bison at Antelope Island.

We briefly saw pronghorn sheep from far away.

Views along the drive. You can barely see some bison in that last picture. They were far out in the dried lake.

A few shots from the working farm on the island.

Antelope Island is a state park that sits on the Great Salt Lake.

Antelope Island

The weather called for rain during our trip to Utah but we got lucky. We only saw rain on one day. The morning we went to Antelope Island, just after getting off the plane, was a perfect day even though it was a little warm and the bugs were more annoying than ones in Florida. The ride on the causeway out to the island was amazing. We pulled over several times.

Far across the lake I could see hundreds of avocets. Avocets are fairly rare in my area and I’ve only seen one. I was bummed they were so far away but the water levels were extremely low due to a long drought in Salt Lake City.

Across the island a coyote was running for the trees. He stopped for a brief second as if to say “Take a picture quick lady cause I’m outta here.”

The roads were lined with yellow flowers.

Stopping along the way to take pictures of the bison.

The horses were on a historic farm on the island. Even they were getting annoyed with the bugs.

We loved Antelope Island. Since it’s so close to Salt Lake City, we stopped by twice. The bugs were vicious and the birding was slow but the landscape was amazing.

Our World Tuesday Graphicimage-in-ing: weekly photo linkup

One last look at Colorado for now

We only saw a few bison during our drive through Rocky Mountain Arsenal Park.

The view of downtown Denver from the park.

I did not want to leave. Even though we had cold rainy weather the entire trip out here I could so live here. Maybe I’m just tired of the beach and heat after living in Florida for almost 16 years.

I had a window seat on the way home.

I knew I was getting close to home when I saw so much water.

Where to next????

SkyWatch Friday

 

More Bearizona animals

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More animals from our drive through Bearizona, near Flagstaff. It was so much fun to see these animals up close but more fun to see them wandering around in big open spaces. Some enclosures were so big you could barely see the fence through the woods. As we drove through the wolves section, there was a big sign that said “If the wolves come up to your car, do not stop, continue driving.” I figured with my luck they would all be sleeping in the back somewhere and we wouldn’t see any but they were very active. One walked right up to the front of the car and just stood there like “Where do you think you’re going?”  He wouldn’t move so Brett drove around him. The big horn sheep were active as well. We stopped to let them walk across the road in front of us and two of them just stopped and leaned on the car while another came up to my window. Brett didn’t want to back up since they were also behind us so we sat there for a few minutes until they finally moved on. Next time I make it back to Flagstaff I will make a stop here again.

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