Visiting Antelope Island and the Great Salt Lake

Today we decided to go on an excursion to see the Great Salt Lake. My children and I have never been there and we figured that since we were picking Auntie Em up from the SLC airport, we might as well keep heading north to the Great Salt Lake!

Of course when you go with kids, there are the inevitable potty breaks. We stopped at the entrance to Antelope Island State Park, which conveniently had a restroom. It also had this fun bison statue that Eli was determined to ride.

What a silly boy! We drove across the causeway and headed for the public beach area. As soon as we hit the causeway, you could definitely smell the salt in the air! The boys said it was STINKY. I didn't think it was too bad.

We made it to the day use area and had a little picnic lunch. Then we got our suits on and headed for the beach.

It was a beautiful day out on the lake. The smell actually decreased once you were at the edge of the water. The kids had a fun time playing in the salty sand and wading in the water. My older son did not like the feel of the salt water on his skin, but his younger brother did not mind it at all. They thought it was pretty cool that it was so easy to float.

A word to the wise though, don't get the water in  your mouth! The boys just said, "Yeach!". I TOLD them not to taste the water! Silly boys.

I brought an umbrella for shade, but the shore was pretty rocky. I set up the umbrella anyway because I figured at least it would make for a nice picture!

We stayed and played for a while, but then my kids got tired and it was time to go. The hardest part was the trip back up to the restrooms and picnic area. It is a LONG ways! But we made it.

It was nice that there were showers to rinse off, so we rinsed off and changed our clothes. That was heavenly after having so much salt on your skin! We came prepared and put our salty swim clothes in ziploc baggies so we didn't have to smell them the whole way home.

Since we were on the island, we figured we would drive around and see what else was there. Did you know there are bison on Antelope Island? Pretty cool!

We saw a couple of bison not too far from the road and the kids thought that was awesome. We even went out to Bison Point to take in the view.

Very pretty! They even had binoculars for the kids to look through to spot the bison. They could see a couple of them roaming around on the plain below.

We only drove around for a little while and then headed home. On our way out we even saw an antelope! We had a fun day at the Great Salt Lake. Next time I think I will come in the evening when it is a bit cooler and see if I can't catch a sunset on the lake. I think that would be beautiful!

I can see how the Great Salt Lake might not be everyone's cup of tea. The water is very salty and it is a bit smelly. We did see some brine flies at the water's edge and tiny brine shrimp in the water, but they didn't really bother us. My kids had a good time playing in the water and I definitely think it was worth the visit. It is a fun place to wade and play in the shallows.

On an unrelated note, on the way home on the freeway we actually saw the Google car! You know the one that has all the cameras to take the "street view" pictures of various roads? If you have never seen it, it looks like this:

We have actually seen it a couple of times lately. They must be doing the streets in our neighborhood of Utah lately. Bison, antelope and the Google car all in one day... what a fun day!



Linked up to Wordful Wednesday, Wordish Wednesday, and Wordless Wednesdays all over.