After some excitement about the snowy mts views from my living room window (my niece and nephew have never been out of IN/IL/WI/MI), we took a short PJ roadtrip along the Wastach front to see the beautiful Oquirrhs Mts in the morning sun.
Then we got ready and headed up to Antelope Island. It was sunny and in the 40s when we got there. The drive across the causeway was pretty dry but still pretty as the mountains look like upside down snowcones with white ends (i.e., no snow in the foothills).
Upon entry, we watched a beautiful hawk gliding over the ground probably looking for breakfast. Had the kids on high alert for coyote but nothing along the causeway.
Stopped for a quick photo at the bison statue and we headed down towards the ranch.
We saw a couple of bison off the road and as I was slowing down to pull-off, there was a chukkar (game bird) running along with my car. Then he ran into the grasses and perched on a rocks and started calling.
The Western Meadowlarks were also singing this morning and there was another bird and I don't know it name.
Well, the bison we out-of-view so we had to walk into the grasses to get a look.
A little further along were a couple more bison and I spotted a pronghorn just off the road. I pulled off and my niece snuck out of the car for a photo.
I think it was about here when the 2 blue heron flew by.
We saw 2 more pronghorn and a larger bison herd by the fenceline.
Approaching the ranch, there was another large herd and it looked pretty close to the Sentry Trail --- we might just have to investigate.
But we're looking for the Great Horned Owls --- the DNR lady pointed us in a direction but I was pretty confident she didn't know OR wasn't supposed to tell where they were. But we went out to the area she pointed, and saw nothing.
Behind the ranch, there was a Flicker pounding away on the barn. And....I've never seen these before, they had the lassoes out. The Steer had metal heads and horn mounted to saw horses and they even had a "horse" made from a metal barrel (and other metal). We had to give it a try. My niece was the best -- she really had the throw down -- but we were far from good.
Afterwards, the kids and my sister were game to walk just a bit of the Sentry Trail to see the bison, so I drove down the dirt road to the parking area. We saw 4 female mule deer!
When I parked I realized that the bison were not by the trail but we walked anyway maybe a few hundred yards towards little high point clearing. Along the way, my niece spotted a coyote running towards the trail (but in the distance). I've seen bunches of coyote here but never one running; curious what he was running from (or to).
We got to the "high" point, my nephew went up first and was greeted by 6 pronghorns staring at him. He tried a belly crawl but before he got down, the antelope were off and running south down the island. That was pretty exciting.
On our way back north, we stopped at the Frary Point Parking (it the highest parking on the island) for the wonderful view. The kids spotted a rock outcropping and they were off to investigate.
before they went off to explore and ham it up a bit.
It was finally time to head down.
But I made one last stop because there were 3 bison off the White Rock Trail. Perhaps we could get somewhat. And we did! And we managed to see yet another antelope running through the meadow.
Good day had by all.
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