Antelope Island – Elephant Head Trail

Last year we went hiking on Antelope Island, a large island in the southeast corner of the Great Salt Lake, about 40 miles from where we live. We had set a goal to hike to the top of Frary Peak, and we did it. Coming back down we started thinking about our goal for next year. That’s when we noticed this:

That’s Elephants Head, a large outcropping of land that, on the map at least, looks like a big elephant’s head. We noticed there was a trail winding up there, and thought it might be fun to try that this year.

This week the kids have spring break from school, so I took some time off from work and we planned our assault on Elephants Head. I wasn’t sure how well we’d do, as we’re all still a little soft from winter, and it’s 4.1 miles from the trail-head to the eastern point of Elephants Head. By comparison, our Frary Peak trail is only about 3.2 miles, though much more mountainous.

It didn’t help our enthusiasm any that it rained most of the previous day. But our appointed day dawned dry and clear, so we decided to give it a try. We arrived to find the highest peaks along the island had accumulated some snow the previous day. But we arrived at the trail-head and found a welcoming committee.

It might be a little difficult to make out, but that’s a bison. He was scratching himself against a rock. He watched us, and we watched him, and we all decided the other was not a threat. Soon we headed off on the trail.

The weather was not encouraging. We didn’t get very far along the trail before it began to rain, then to hail, then both, then more rain, etc. We nearly turned back, but decided to keep going. Eventually the rain let up, though the clouds remained dark and threatening for most of the hike out to the end of the trail.

There was some pretty aspects to the rather bleak, wet scenery, though. This is, I believe, a wildflower called “Indian Paintbrush.”

About two-thirds of the way along is a solitary tree where they built a hitching post. A lot of people bring their horses out to ride on the island (we saw a few while we were there) and this was as good a place as any for a rest area. Not far beyond the tree the trail takes a sharp turn uphill.

I like wildflowers, in case you haven’t noticed.

This is the view from up on top of Elephants Head, looking out across Great Salt Lake.

I was a little slower getting to the end of the trail than Terhi and the boys, as I kept stopping to take pictures. But here’s the view from the end of the trail.

This projection of land is the trunk of the elephant. I guess that would make where we were standing the cheek.

At that point we were getting hungry, so we turned back. It had taken us over two hours to get out to the end of the trail, and it was already 12:30 pm. The boys immediately got out ahead of the rest of us. But we weren’t too concerned. With their red jackets against the somewhat bleak landscape it wasn’t hard to locate them.

About that time the sun came out, and we quickly found out that the rain hadn’t been so bad after all. We were immediately set upon by swarms of biting gnats, and for a time I thought we might be battling them all the way back, working to keep them out of our eyes and noses. But then a breeze came up, which helped keep them under control. They just settled on our backs.

It’s always faster going downhill, and we made it back to the car in only an hour and a half. We brushed off all the gnats and headed up to the visitors center to eat our lunch. For whatever reason there were no gnats there, so we were able to enjoy our lunch without any added protein.

All in all, though, it was a fun hike. The gnats got a little much to deal with for a bit, but for the most part the kids handled the weather, the bugs, and the distance (8.2 miles round-trip) without much complaint. We were sure tired out when we got home, though. Fortunately all we really had to to was finish a book I was reading to them, so none of us moved much the rest of the day.

We haven’t set our next goal yet. We might take our time. We’ll probably avoid Antelope Island until the gnat population declines dramatically. It’s strange; we’ve been hearing warnings about the bugs out there for years, but have never experienced any trouble before. I guess this time our luck had run out. Oh well, just another one of those family experiences we’ll all look back on fondly from the far side of memory.

Note: Just click on any of the pictures for a larger version.