June 14th, 2017

It was a bit sad leaving Kemmerer this morning. We enjoyed our time with Patrick, it felt like we were leaving a dear friend behind. Perry suggested we check out Antelope Island State Park. This is an island in the Great Salt Lake. Perry ran errands and Leighton and I went on to the island. What a beautiful place but the entrance said the no-see-ums had hatched and there would be no refunds because if the insects.  Our first stop was at a beach access.  We took off our shoes and socks and started the quarter mile walk to the water.  We were quite surprised to find the sand was full of rocks and much of it had a crusty layer making it painful bare footed. We finally made it and Donna braved the shoreline muck and walked a fair distance out into the lake. Many people were out much farther than me and were barely up to their knees. The shoreline was nasty but once past it the water was fine. Leighton enjoyed the birds on the island and got some great shots. We didn’t pay attention to the time and had to drive through Salt Lake City during 5 o’clock traffic. We are spending the night in Springville in a Bestwestern. Nice place. Tomorrow we will meet up with Perry and Steve (his brother in law) in Delta. Time is going by to fast for us; we are not ready for this adventure to end.

We made it to Utah.

Utah also has a version of the devils slide.  It does make one wonder about these states that have a slide to keep the devil entertained.

Crossing the causeway to Antelope Island we had this view across the lake, we really liked the reflection.

Here is a view of the beach area we went to.

Donna wading in the lake.

Others were more adventurous and walked out further.

Lots of pesky flies were near the lake and you can get an idea of the rocks in the sand there.

Walking back to the car (with our shoes on) we saw this grass, the ends were soft to the touch.

An American Avocet was wading around in the lake while

his buddies were sleeping and preening.

Driving on the road near the bison corals we saw a Great Basin Whiptail lizard the was very cooperative, until another car came along.

I thought you would enjoy a closeup so you could really see what he looks like.

Lots of critters I haven’t seen before were there.  The following is a horned lark.

I finally got a picture of this bird which is called a Chuka Partridge.  The Chuka is a game bird that was introduced in this country from Eurasia.  It is now found in the Great Basin and southern Canada.  It has also been introduced in Hawaii. 

As we were driving down a road there was this burrowing owl just standing by the road.  I figured as long as it was willing to pose I should grab a couple of shots.

We came across a horned lark just standing on a rock.  We figured it’s feet must be cold.

On the return trip up the hill we saw a couple more burrowing owls.  They blend very well into the terrain.

While traveling around the island we kept seeing a harrier hawk.  It was being very elusive and this was the best I could get.