Last week, as mentioned yesterday, our family hiked the Frary Peak Trail on Antelope Island. As promised, here are some pictures. (Click for larger images)
Antelope Island is within view of Downtown Salt Lake City. Such a view inspires me–to hold my breath for a really long time. No wonder I have trouble breathing around here.
The island is primarily low, rolling land around the base of a range of peaks, the tallest about 2200 feet above the lake. This is the view toward SLC. It’s late in the year, and the Great Salt Lake is getting pretty low. You could just about walk from Syracuse to Antelope Island and only get a little wet.
Here we go, up the trail toward the crossroads, where the trail splits. One fork goes north to Dooley Knob, the other heads toward Frary Peak to the south.
One of the best features of Antelope Island is the sheer variety of terrain and rock formations. At first glance it’s a fairly bleak place, but the longer you spend there the more you realize what a unique and beautiful place it is.
There’s not much rain or run-off to speak of, but clearly there’s enough to create some ravines that support the few clumps of trees on the island. They can be quite striking in their fall foliage.
In case you needed proof, I did go on this hike, too! This is at a natural fortification overlooking a gentle plain we figure would make a great site for a truly epic battle.
This is Elephant Head. After looking at it for much of the hike we decided that we need to go there for our next hike. It’s probably twice as long a trail to get there as the one we took, but it’s mostly flat until the end, so it might not be too bad. But we’ve got to have a goal!
And here we are at the summit; that’s the three-mile marker. Someone else planted the flag. In the background you can see the true highest point on the island, but the trail ends not much farther on, and unless you’re a mountain goat or an experienced climber I wouldn’t go much farther.
And here we make our way down again, looking toward the northwest. That’s Elephant Head poking up at the left. The boys are out in front, with Terhi trailing behind, while Emma and I lag at the rear–no one ever wants to wait for the photographers. We got a fair number of flower pictures, but I’ll leave those for another time.
Once we got back to the van we pulled out the cooler and had some lunch before we headed to the visitors’ center and the gift shop, then home. We just love Antelope Island. Even though you can see the city across the bay, it still feels remote. It’s very quiet out there, and it’s easy to feel like you’re the only people left on earth. We may have to go camping out there sometime.