Sunday, January 18, 2009

2009 Adventure #2 - Water, Wildlife, Rocks and History

Cheryl and I ventured out again this last weekend on another adventure. This adventure however, was not as "dirty" as our first adventure. At least, I didn't have to wash the vehicle before bringing it back to home as I did last time. But like all of our adventures we found lots to explore and saw history in the past.

Our adventure took us to a place where neither one of us can recall going before and now we will be definitely going back. This place took us back into time, from the formations that we saw to the historical events that occur ed it was a lot like traveling back in time.


Let's see can anyone guess where Utah's oldest standing building on it's original foundation is located. Soon after the pioneers arrived in Salt Lake they began operations on this location and continued until the early 1900's. Even one of Cheryl's relatives, Israel Barlow broke wild horses here.

You could walk through the ranch house and see how times had changed. The laundry room had 4 different eras of washing machines. Wandering through the ranch house, bunkhouse, blacksmith shop, and barn; one could just imagine the activities and events of days gone by.









Not only did we take in a bit of history but the geology was also a amazingHere you can see some gneiss which is the oldest formation in history and we found areas scattered with beautiful scenic formations. The waving grain of this formation was memorising as one searched the formation.


Let's not forget about the wildlife. Hm, let's see we saw a coyote, two horned owls, a bald eagle, and a golden eagle.







Yes, there were ducks of all types of feathers about. We even saw a horse or two or three or a dozen even; but no not wild all being ridden by the animal known as humans.

The landscape was filled with trails to explore and signs of wildlife. Look over there is that a buffalo? Yup, we were on the plains of America, well not quite but this area has a herd of 300-500 buffalo. Even with all of the wildlife we saw, we still missed seeing the mule deer, the mountain goat, and the antelope.











Did I say Antelope? Yes, that is correct we traveled across the great causeway to Antelope Island this weekend. What a beautiful island and intriguing. In the short time that we were there, we had determined to return with our family more often to Antelope Island and explore some of the hikes into the canyons and mountains of the island. Re-visit the Fielding Garr Farm where relatives and others ranched the land. We even toyed with the idea of exploring some of the other six island on the Great Salt Lake.

2 comments:

Rachel said...

I don't think I've ever been to Antelope Island. Is it true that my father may have deprived me of a visit to this great Utah location??? I thought I was required to visit ALL of Utah before I left the state. How ever did you let me leave without seeing the famous Antelope Island?

Jclyde said...

Ahh.. Grasshopper sometimes we adults must cut the apron strings and let our young go out into the world to discover the treasures themselves.

However, whenever you are back in Utah we can defintely plan a trip.