Bison, Gnats & Epic Views on Antelope Island

When my brothers place in Jordan, Utah flooded out during my trip we caravanned north to Layton to stay with Lauren’s sister Caroline. I thought it was a great opportunity to finally go visit Antelope Island, a state park located on the Salt Lake and mere minutes away from our new accommodations. Lauren expressed concern about it being smelly this time of year but we headed off anyway.

It’s only $10/car to get in and the island is 28,022 acres and seems kind of like a dessert land but has a ton of wildlife including bison.  As we first pulled in we saw this guy chilling on the side of the road. It’s funny that a Canadian gal had to hit a mountain desert in order to see a buffalo up close.

We headed on down to the public beach area where they have the islands only concessions and showers. I was planning on swimming in the salty lake and couldn’t wait to get in the water. We had to walk a ways across sand to get to the lake from the parking lot.

As we approached the water someone pointed out the gnats that were flying all around. They didn’t bother me because I don’t mind a few bugs but the closer we got to the lake we realized that what looked like black sand along the shoreline was actually swarms of gnats!

Totally grossed out my family stopped and my mom straight up turned around and left, she wasn’t having it. But Bruce and I really wanted to go in and decided we would just wade in it a little so I could say I’ve been IN the lake. There were a lot of other people there swimming and I wondered how they could swim in swarms of bugs like that.

We walked into the water through the thick cloud of gnats and I covered my mouth and nose so they wouldn’t get in. I started screaming as we walked through the hoard of bugs. Ugh! The lake itself was wonderful and cool and once you got through the swarm on the shore side, there weren’t any bugs flying around above the lake. It was cool refreshing water on a hot summer day and I was really tempted to get in but I was too worried about getting swarmed on my way out if I did.

See the dark shoreline? ALL GNATS!Bruce had gone to the same place a month before with my brother Ben and said there were no bugs or anything ad they had a great time swimming. And like I said, once you’re in the water they don’t bug you.

While we were in the water Lauren and Leilani left for the concession stand because they had been swarmed by gnats and Leilani swung her purse in circles around their heads as they tried to make their getaway. Ha ha.

We made a pit stop at the concession stand for root beer floats and a sno cone for me.

Then mom, my step-day, bruce and I set off to go on a “hike” to Buffalo It’s not really a hike because it’s only 0.4 miles each way with no real climb but the views at the top are killer!

You park near the top where you can use a telescope thingy to look for wildlife.

As we went up the views got better and better and we were at the peak before I could even break a sweat. The views were amazing!

After our hike we headed back for home to spend the afternoon with the family. I told my brother this island would be amazing to explore on a mountain bike in the fall or spring when the weather is a little cooler.