October 8th, 2010

Today was reserved for some wildlife exploration at Antelope Island State Park! Again, we saw a lot of waterfowl on the lake. Those of us who are not so crazy about birds (especially ones we spent plenty of time looking at yesterday) set out for the actual island itself in search of mammals! Right away, we saw a bunch of bison. They come so close to the road because they’re used to cars by now. We also saw some pronghorn, which was exciting for me since I had never seen them before (other than the mounted head of one in the wildlife building)! We were still disappointed that we hadn’t spotted any Big Horned Sheep back in Snowbird, so we decided to tackle the trail up into the mountains here in hopes of finding some. We didn’t get very far along the trail when we saw a massive nest in a big rock. Chris decided he was going to climb the rock to get a better look at the nest, but the type of rock wasn’t very stable and a giant piece crumbled off when he pulled so he fell. He fell awkwardly in order to keep the falling chunk of rock from crushing him, and he sprained his ankle in the process. So we headed to the visitor center, hoping they would have some ice or something to help. They had nothing useful, not even a first aid kit (how awful is that?), so we hung out and looked at the souvenirs and let Chris rest his ankle. By the visitor center we saw a Burrowing Owl, Chukkers, and Black-Billed Magpies (which are so pretty it makes me like birds). We were all supposed to meet up for lunch at the barbeques, so we decided to head there early to find a good spot. We barbequed the hot dogs and burgers that we hadn’t used up in Snowbird and enjoyed the view of the lake. We switched up the groups, and my group headed back to the trail we started earlier. Eventually, everyone ended up on this trail (even Chris, limping stubbornly and saying he’s fine). We didn’t see anything besides some Ravens and lizards. After hanging out here too long and nearly getting locked in the park, we headed out to find food! We ate at a local brewery, which serves Polygamy Porter! So that people can say they tried Polygamy in Utah! We didn't stay up much longer after dinner because we needed to get an early start the next morning to do that long drive in one day again!