Don’t Pass the Salt (Lake) – Antelope Island State Park, Utah

The “Bug season – No refunds” sign was fair warning. We looked at each other. We’d gone too far off the route to give up now. It looked so beautiful from afar…. And maybe we’d get the place to ourselves.

We were on the home stretch of our biannual Florida – British Columbia repositioning road trip, and after several long days on the road, I really, really wanted to stop driving and do something interesting. At the Interstate 80 Visitor Info Center at the Utah/Wyoming border, we stopped for a pee and I chatted up an enthusiastic woman who was so excited to help me figure out the best place to go for a swim in Great Salt Lake.

The entrance to the park is just west of Syracuse, UT, a town just off the Interstate 15, about 40 miles north of Salt Lake City. Once past the gate, a 7-mile causeway with gorgeous views of distant snow topped mountains on either side crosses the lake and connects you to the park.

Because of time constraints, we had only a couple of hours for a cursory look at the island. I did a quick explore of the short Lady Finger Trail and walked out to a high point with beautiful views on three sides overlooking the vast blue of the lake. The trail was empty, but I was not alone, as I was constantly walking through swarms of black flies. They seemed to be centered around small blobs of vegetation, swirling above them without actually landing. When I walked past, they politely moved to let me by, though I had to be careful, and hold my breath at appropriate times. I felt like Moses parting the fly sea!

There were many hiking trails on the island, but, because of time, we didn’t have the chance to do them.  They ranged from easy to challenging.  The highest trail takes you 2300 feet to the top of a hill and I imagine the view from there would be stunning in all directions. Just make sure to bring sunscreen, clothes for the weather, a hat and plenty of water on this hike, as you are rather exposed. Trees – and shade – are rather scarce on the island.

We stopped at the visitor centre to have a look at the displays and to browse the gift shop. I got a cute vintage poster-style fridge magnet and decided it was worth it to invest in mosquito netting for my head. Not my most flattering look, but it was the best $5.00 I’ve spent in a while.  I realized how easy it is to take for granted a deep, calming breath of insect-free air.

This was my first time wearing a head net, and it felt a little strange at first. Pro tip: If you have a peaked baseball cap to wear underneath the netting, do, as it a) keeps the sun off your head and b) nicely stops that weird feeling of having the netting sitting right on top of your face.

Bridger Bay beach is the place to swim. A wide, crescent shaped beach with modern and clean showers, toilets, changerooms and restaurant facilities make the experience family friendly. From atop the hill near the visitor centre, we found a nice view down over the swimming area.

At the Bridger Bay parking lot, there is a trail leading down to the salt encrusted beach and eventually, the water. The bugs hung out only with the green vegetation, so once I was out past that, the netting came off.

It is a long way to get to the water. Once there, it feels rather surreal. One can imagine if there was a lake on the moon, it would feel like this – virtually no animal life; still and enormous and mysterious.

The lake was shallow and rather cold – as shown by my goosebumps and happy but clench-y facial expression.

I had to wade out a ways before it was deep enough to try to float without my bum on the bottom. In the end, I wound up in thigh-deep water, first squatting and then floating on my back. The water’s high salt content makes one so buoyant and it is a unique feeling. Can’t wait to one day try this sort of swim again, perhaps back here in the Great Salt Lake, or overseas in the Dead Sea.

I used the convenient shower to rinse off the brine of the Great Salt Lake as we wanted to do a drive along the Eastern side of the island before it was time to head home.

Unfortunately, on this trip I didn’t have a camera with a zoom lens, so was not able to get any good photos of the two antelope and small herd of buffalo we did see on our drive on the east side of the island. Just another reason to return… maybe in October when the park hosts a buffalo roundup event to help with maintaining the wellbeing of the park’s 550 strong buffalo herd! The park’s visitor centre had a few statues of some of their signature fauna, just in case you weren’t able to grab a photo with the real thing. These particular specimens were open to selfies with tourists.

The drive back on the causeway to the mainland was eerie. We were marvelling at the sweet and expansive view, until we looked more closely at the foreground. More and more swarms of insects, again only zooming around in circles up to about 7 feet above the brushy plants lining the side of the road! I wanted to get out and take a picture, so we pulled over at the side of the road.

When the van stopped, it took only seconds for this to happen…

Gross and fascinating at the same time… but these bugs were not interested at all in people, so no worries. If the bugs creep you out, don’t go in May’s bug season. But DO go another time. This park is too good to miss!