The Great Salt Lake (August 23, 2018)

The Great Salt Lake is 75 miles long and 28 miles wide.  We visited Antelope Island State Park, accessed by a causeway, for a closer look.  Twelve bison were brought to the island in 1893.  The island can support about 700 bison.  Each October, a bison round-up is held for culling the herd, vaccinating the animals, etc.  

Barn swallow fledglings at the visitor's center await Mama's return to feed them delicious flies, grasshoppers, crickets . . . .

The Mormons established a ranch on the island in 1848, the year after their arrival in Utah.  They appointed Fielding Garr, a widower with nine children, to run the ranch.  They sold the ranch in 1870.  The original adobe house was occupied by a series of owners until 1981, when Antelope Island became a state park.  Now the house and buildings are open to tourists.  I like this very practical drawer pull on a tool chest in the barn.  

Vehicles in need of an oil change or repair were driving on this early version of a lift.  A mechanic could work on the underside of the vehicle.

An intricate birdhouse outside the visitor center.  The 6-mile long causeway to the island is in the background.  Birders can view millions of migratory shorebirds along the causeway and elsewhere on the island.

Our plan to float in the Great Salt Lake changed when we checked out the beach.  Years of drought and diversion of rivers that feed the lake (for irrigation) have caused the shoreline to shrink.  The beach is covered in crusty dried minerals and buzzing with millions of gnats and brine flies.  At first, we thought the seagulls were kicking up dust at the water's edge.  Then we realized they were disturbing swarms of flies. Yech!

A bird feather on the crusty beach  By the way, if you've eaten Morton Salt, you've eaten minerals from the Great Salt Lake.