Happy Memorial Day!
Little bit of sleet last night and the mountains have more snow on them but it warmed up to 58 today and we had beautiful sun and bright blue skies not the rain they predicted.
We drove up to Antelope Island which is right on The Great Salt Lake, You drive over a seven mile causeway and then you're on the island which had a great visitor center, beach, picnic areas, wildlife. The Lake itself is 1750 acres and it's 6-8 times saltier then the ocean. There's buffalo, pronghorn antelope and all kinds of wildlife. At the visitor center there were little swallows that had built nests right under the eaves of the building. Dozens of them flying around, chirping away and tending to their nests. The lake itself is almost a carribean blue/green and huge. The manager at the campground wanted me to throw Harry in and see if he floated because he said that nobody sinks because of the salt content and I told him Harry sinks everywhere. We were gonna test the theory but the water was only 62 degrees and I needed a ride back to camp.We stopped at the visitor center and then walked down to the water at the beach. It's quite a hike, seems the lake sunk and that's how it became so salty. But now the lake is way below the street level.
We then stopped for lunch at a picnic area high on top of a mountain looking down at the lake, great views. There's a campground on the lake with great views, too. We didn't know about it when we checked into where we're staying. The mountains remind me of lumpy chocolate cake with powdered sugar. Driving through town I'd get into an accident looking at them so much, it's hard to NOT look a them.
Then we drove 12 miles to the end of the island where there's the Fielding Garr Ranch, a working ranch since 1848. And this weekend they're having a Cowboy Music and Poetry Festival, Yahoo! Very different, cowboys singing, reciting poetry, showing people how to rope cattle, horseback rides, exhibits of cowboy stuff, there's vendors with cowboy stuff and all this in front of the beautiful mountains. Stayed there about 2 hours and then drove the 12 miles back and over the causeway.
Had to stop and get some groceries and then we moved sites at the campground. We want to stay another 2 nights and the site we're in was promised to somebody else. So we moved a few sites over. There's a pond (almost a lake) at the campground that they say usually isn't here, it's run-off from mountain snow. Everything is really wet and the grass is lush and green.
Tomorrow we think we're going to Salt Lake City and see the temples and tabernacles. They also say the flowers in Temple Square are so beautiful they have a little more help. And they don't mean from fertilizer.