Day Hike at Antelope Island

March 20, 2019

It was a lovely day in Salt Lake, so Gerry and I went to scout out some possible camping spots (and to test his new hiking boots) at Antelope Island.

While we looked around the west side of the island where most of the campsites are, we also took to a decent hike through the White Rock Loop trail. It took us up and around one of the closer mountain peaks, filled mostly with tall grass and shrubs. Very few trees were around, which I suspect was because of the lack of abundant fresh water.

 

In terms of wildlife, there wasn't much beyond the many beetles and the few bison we saw, but we did see a pronghorn antelope and caught a few lizards.

Also saw a Chukar partridge, of the pheasant family

Came across a decent number of these small lizards,
which I believe to be the Plateau subspecies of side-blotched lizards
(Uta stansburiana uniformis), due to its blue spots on its back.

 

After hiking the loop trail for almost 5 hours (burning nearly 1500 calories), we came away from Antelope Island feeling accomplished and excited for summer time.