Shots from our hotel in downtown Salt Lake City.
Across the street from our hotel was this cool old building that looked like a church. It is currently used for city government offices.
The state capitol was close to our hotel so we took a quick spin around the building before heading to the airport. It looked very grand sitting high up at the base of the mountain. We spent the morning walking around Temple Square which is the headquarters of the Mormon church. More on that stop later.
So many cool birds at the Tracy Aviary in Salt Lake City. Our hotel was close by so we stopped by for a quick walk around to see the birds before checking into our hotel. We had fun seeing all of the different ducks and birds including the golden eagle in the bottom picture. We don’t have goldens in Florida so it was a chance to see one up close. Many of the birds are permanently injured and live here now including the bald eagle. All of the animals looked well fed, clean and happy.
A wild white pigeon was looking for a handout.
The squirrel was stealing the duck food in the open pond.
We had an hour to kill before we could check into our hotel so we spent it walking around outside at the aviary.
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.
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.
We were leaving Florida in the early morning to head to Utah to catch some fall colors. This was my first trip to Utah. The plan was a few days in Salt Lake City and a few days in Park City, hiking and visiting parks.
Our first view of the mountains around Salt Lake City. The views from the plane were pretty amazing. All of these pictures were taken with my phone.
We flew over the Great Salt Lake which was in a record drought.
We touched down on time at 10am, jumped in our rental Jeep and hit the ground running. Five days of nature!
Our first stop in Salt Lake City was Antelope Island State Park. This was taken on the causeway out to the island. There’s a lake out there somewhere. I took a ton of pictures so I hope I don’t lose you with my vacation pictures to come.
