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Day 5 - Touring Antelope Island, then
on to Salt
Lake City |
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| Refreshed and relaxed after our first
'paid' night, we were able to do some laundry, have a nice
dinner of hot dogs and burgers on the grill, and take a
walk around the RV park. It was very nice, even though
it was just a few yards off the highway, and right next
to a large quarry. Didn't notice it at all. Ogden seemed
like a nice place. After
breakfast and a little cleanup, we headed back down I-15 to the Antelope
Island State Park out in the lake. I-15 was the typical
big roadway, the real main artery north and south in
Utah. Lots of commercialization on both sides of the
highway, it seemed to be the most 'developed' stretch of
road we'd seen since back in the East around Baltimore.
Scenery was very nice though, with the mountains
seemingly just out of reach to the east, and off in the
distance, the Great Salt Lake. There was still no let up
with the wind though, it was gusting to at least 30 or
35 MPH, and the temperature was in the low 90s. |
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| We drove the short way down to
Syracuse, and then headed west along a built-up road to
the entrance to the State Park, same place we'd been to
yesterday afternoon. The park is really all of a fairly
large island a few miles off shore in the lake. It had
been privately owned for a while back in the early
1900s, with sheep ranching and some farming going on,
but it was now a state park. Very primitive, the camping
facilities were little more than pads for an RV or tent,
some picnic tables, and trash cans. No running water
through out most of the park, as wells would simply be
prohibitive to dig, being as they are in out the middle
of a huge salty lake...We paid our $10 fee, and
started on the long, straight causeway out to the
island. The wind really picked up here, and before long
we heard an ominous flapping on the side of the RV. The
wind was so strong that it started to unwind the 20 foot
long patio awning along the right side of the Bounder,
and the cloth was flapping to beat the band. Hal
pulled over along one stretch of the causeway that was a
bit wide, and we got out to look. The rear support arm
had come loose and was banging back and forth, which let
the awning unfold. There was not much we
could do there, as there was no place to get out of the
traffic (such as it was...) We tightened things up as
best we could and kept on going to the island proper,
and then headed the short distance up to the Visitor
Center, where we figured we'd be able to make proper
repairs. |
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The
causeway to Antelope Island - six miles of this
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| Once up at the Visitor Center, which
perches atop a slight bluff at the end of the Causeway,
we parked the RV with the awning to the leeward side,
and between the author up on the roof, and Uncle Hal
down on the ground, we managed to get the thing unrolled
and then rolled back up completely. A particularly
strong gust threatened to blow me off the roof and out
into the lake, but I clenched my toes and held on,
somehow. We tied it down
securely, or so we hoped. Something had happened to unspring the spring that kept the tension in it to stay
rolled up, so we weren't absolutely sure. While up
at the VC, you could look back along the causeway
towards the mainland and the hazy blue of the mountains
to the east. |
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| The place was certainly desolate. No
trees to speak of, just scrub grass, tumbleweed and
rocks. The road around the perimeter of the park was
your tour, so we headed to the first 'point of
interest', something called Buffalo Point. Along the
way, damn if we didn't see some buffalo. And a mule
deer. No antelope yet, though. |
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| Buffalo Point overlooked one of the
small bays up at the north-west corner of the island, and
you could see buffalo down along the valley floor if you
looked hard enough. All I could think of was that it
must have been very hot down there. |
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| Once we'd had our fill of Buffalo
Point, it was back on the road and just follow it
around. A fair number of buffalo were seen, and finally
along one stretch of the road we saw our first pronghorn
antelope, the namesake of the island. |
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| The road wound down along the eastern
shoreline of the lake, towards the very bottom of the
island where there was a restoration of a 19th Century
Sheep Ranch, the "Fielding Garr" spread. Trees were a
welcome sight. There was a corral with some horses, a
farmhouse and barn with some old implements, and other
interesting stuff. We spent an enjoyable 45 minutes here
looking around, and then headed back up to the causeway
and back to the mainland. Once back on solid ground, we
headed south on I-15 through Farmington and other
communities, down to Salt Lake City. |
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The
Fielding Garr Ranch |
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Melissa
at the spring |
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Back
towards the causeway |
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Plover |
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Heading
back to the mainland |
| I-15 was a breeze, we made the 50 or
so miles down to SLC in under an hour. There was a good
amount of traffic but three or four lanes of highway
made it all go smoothly. That's the biggest difference
I've seen between interstates out West, and those back
East. Out west, even the inter-city routes are three
lanes or more - the wide open spaces out there make it
so much easier to do that, unlike in the more densely
built up east. We Came out through Syracuse again, and
then headed south. Many small communities along the way,
with houses built up along the foothills to the east. As
we approached SLC, we saw the capitol building just
north of the city, and then the downtown buildings. Not
a huge metropolitan area, but it seemed nice and bright.
Snow capped mountains to the east. |
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Towards
I-15 and south |
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I-16
Southbound along the Wasatch Front |
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Housing up the foothils, near Farmington |
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Salt
Lake City skyline |
| We found our KOA without too much
trouble, having been forewarned about the light rail
construction going on in the street fronting it. They're
building a commuter rail system between Ogden and SLC,
which should be really nice when they get it done, but
of course until then, the main drag is all torn up.
We got situated, and decided to rent a car, so I took a
taxi out to the airport, and picked up a Ford Crown
Victoria. It was the first cab ride where I actually had
to tell the cabbie where the airport was. He must have
been new... |
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End of Day 5 - 94 miles
Total Mileage from Salem to SLC - 2394 Miles
Average Moving Speed : 55 mph
Total Driving Time : 44.5 hours (includes six or so
hours on Antelope Island) |
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Day 4 |
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Day 6 |
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