visitors: city stuff (plus)

Since G and T were new to the greater SLC area, we thought we should do a little civilization touring along with all the woods and mountains.  After an exceedingly pleasant breakfast on the deck at the Silver Fork Lodge, we drove up and over Guardsman Pass - although T was not a huge fan of how that road drops off to the outside - to the Park City side.

Taking advantage of the continuing gorgeous (if blustery) weather, we did a short walk in the Round Valley foothills to stretch our legs before heading to Park City's Main Street,  Since we usually find ourselves in Park City on weekends and/or during big sporting events, it was quite refreshing to find uncrowded streets, not to mention available parking in the free garage.  We strolled up and down Main Street, window-shopping and going into art galleries, before stopping in at the No Name Saloon for refreshments.  Again, it was nice to be in there when it wasn't bursting at the seams.  There is definitely something to be said for the shoulder season.

The next day I had to go back to work, but H, G and T ventured north to Antelope Island State Park.  It has been several years since we've been up there but the biggest change, frankly, was the damage done to the big barn at the Fielding Garr Ranch: recent high winds peeled off the roof, while leaving the ranch houses and giant trees unscathed.  H reported that you could also see the burn scars on the mountains from this past summer's massive wildfire.

 Lone wolf bison

After Antelope Island, H thought it would be a good idea to introduce G and T to Crown Burger, which apparently went over quite well.  Next on the list: Temple Square.  They found a friendly missionary who took them into the Convention Center, the Visitors' Center and the Tabernacle, answering all their questions.  They made it back home not long before I did and it was fun to hear their impressions of the day.

where the deer and the antelope play

Our Sunday activity was quite nearly the opposite of our Saturday one: we still went hiking, but we drove north to Antelope Island and walked for 11.2 miles on dry, sandy trails wearing t-shirts and shorts.  We even got sunburned!

Looking southeast to the island's center

from the White Rock Loop trail

Once across the causeway and on the island, we drove to White Rock Bay on the west side.  The bison round-up had just occurred and we could see the big beasties in the corrals up on the hill to the north of the beach.  There were several other vehicles in the day-use parking lot: trucks hauling horse trailers and cars with bike racks; a number of MTBers rode into the lot as we were heading out, leading us to understand that there actually are MTB-friendly trails in this state park.

Pretty cushy walking

We did the White Rock Loop, plus an out-and-back jaunt to Elephant Head, and once out there really didn't see too many other people, a few trail-runners, a few MTBers, a few folks on horseback.  The White Rock Loop trail is lovely, running level about mid-way up the rolling hills, the low grasses toasted gold from the summer's hot sun.  It is so wide open out there that you can see everything: distances look great but the miles just disappeared under our feet with the easy walking.

The Wasatch, peeking over the ridge of the island

To go out to Elephant Head, you have to climb up a little bit to the ridgeline, then walk out on that level to the bluff.  There was bison poop everywhere up there - it must be a favorite spot of theirs.  The whole west side of the island drops away from that trail.  It couldn't have been more different from what we'd been doing just the day before.

Couple of big guys who did not get rounded up

Antelope Island is a great place for wildlife viewing.  On our just-under 4 hour jaunt, we saw: bison, pronghorn antelope, mule deer, two coyotes, chukkars, hawks and a cowboy sipping on a can of Budweiser while he was a-horse.  After the hike we went up to the bison corrals.  Hundreds of them were there, the older ones lying down unconcernedly, the younger ones milling about more nervously.  The noise the herd was making was great, sort of a low, humming, grunting, collective groan.  Antelope Island State Park is such a cool place (I don't understand why more locals don't go there) - if you're ever visiting the greater SLC area, it's worth the trip.

guest blogger: utah trip, day three

Antelope Island:  This island is located in the middle of the Great Salt Lake.  You can drive your car all the way around the island.  We came within fifteen feet of two buffalo, we saw antelope, deer, a jack rabbit and lizards.  We also stopped at a ranch built in the mid-188s and we saw where the horses herd the buffalo.  When we were leaving the island, a huge seagull hit the windshield.  This place was unique because it's very different.

Mexican Restaurant (Lone Star Taqueria):  This was a very cute restaurant.  I had a cheese quesadilla and some of my mom's chicken taco.  It was so packed at first that we weren't going to eat there, but the other place wouldn't let us [Ed. - the kids] in because it was a bar.  The Lone Star had good food.

Guest blogger K, on the Peruvian lift

Snowbird Ski Resort:  Here, we rode up a mini chairlift to the alpine slide.  This attraction was very cool because you could go as fast as you wanted and you aren't attached to the track.  We then went on the big chairlift.  The views were amazing, but a storm was coming in [Ed. - This was Monday, with a 60% chance of rain, which ended up being 100% of a torrential downpour that even awed the Snowbird staff].  It began sprinkling and thundering and lightening.  It was very nerve-racking.  Right when we got off, we had to run through the downpour.  It was a good laugh.

antelope by moonlight

In the spirit of continuing to try new stuff, we signed up for the 19th Annual Antelope by Moonlight Bike Ride.  This non-competitive bike ride starts at 10:00 p.m., out on Antelope Island, where participants ride on the road from the marina to the Fielding Garr Ranch and back again under the full moon.  We had a mixed experience.

Since H had signed up to do the Porcupine Hill Climb the next morning, we hoped to finish the 22+ mile ride by midnight and thus be home and in bed by 1 p.m.  Unfortunately, the logistics for getting all the bicyclists out to the island were not well-thought through: we planned to get out there by 9:30 p.m., giving ourselves a half hour to put our bikes together, putter around, etc.  Instead, the folks running the park entry and parking were so overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of participants that we sat in traffic for over 1.5 hours, trying to get from the highway, across the causeway and parked.  As a result, we weren't able to get on our bikes until nearly 11 p.m. - almost an hour late, making our hoped-for finish of midnight impossible.  They also ran out of t-shirts and had to give us a voucher to mail in for our shirts.  It's been estimated that there were over 1,500 participants, which would only have been 50 more than last year so they should have known how to deal with the crowds, but clearly the organizers need to re-tool this event.

Not a very good photo, but good

enough for being taken at midnight

That being said, the ride itself was so fun.  Since we missed the start, it wasn't too crowded when we got on the road.  Although the moon wasn't quite full and was in and out of the clouds for a while, our bikes' headlights gave us plenty of visibility.  The road on the eastern side of the island has rolling hills and I am pleased to say that I rode up all of them, the whole 23.8 mile ride, which is the longest bike ride I have done in decades.  Even though I was on my MTB (H rode his road bike), we managed to pass way more folks than passed us; our average speed was 12.9 m.p.h. - not blistering, certainly, but respectable enough to finish the ride in under 2 hours.


We didn't linger at the ranch - which was swarming with so many riders! - just long enough to grab a snack, check our tires for goathead thorns and head back out.  On the return, with the moon at our backs, we were able to see up into the foothills a little and were thrilled to see a large herd of snoozing bison.  We pulled off to the side of the road and could hear them snorting and snuffling.  The next time we do this ride - and we will do it again, just not when it's the night before the Porcupine Hill Climb, as we didn't get home until 2 a.m. - we'll get out there way early to avoid the traffic, and bring a picnic supper with us.  And we'll not do the ride quite so quickly, taking a little more time to enjoy the stars and sleeping bison and the rest of Antelope Island under the moon.

flattened

The plan was solid - it was a good plan.  We were going to take our MTBs out to Antelope Island State Park and ride on the trails there.  The island has lots of dirt roads and hiking/biking/horseback-riding trails which run along ridgelines or follow the undulating foothills, nothing too hilly or steep or rocky or switchbacky, so I should have been able to ride them no problem.  The weather was perfect: clear and sunny, high 70s with a steady breeze.  We checked in at the visitors' center and the super-friendly ranger there talked us through our trail possibilities; we decided to try the Mountain View trail which runs the length of the island on the east side and continues past the Fielding Garr Ranch, heading towards the southern end of the island which is inaccessible to those folks in cars.  We drove a little ways down the road to the Frary Peak trailhead road where there was access to the Mountain View trail, put on our gear and jumped on our bikes.

the scenic Mountain View trail

For the first 1.4 miles it was wonderful.  Gentle terrain, a dirt path (with some sandy spots) surrounded by wild sunflowers, pronghorn antelope bounding away through the grasses and bison watching us unconcernedly as we pedaled on by.  At about 1.4 miles we stopped so H could take some photos of the picturesque path and as he laid his bike down, I heard a hissing.  "Hey," I said, "I think one of us has a flat."  We inspected our tires. Yes, one of us did have a flat, and the other of us had a flat too, and actually both of us had two flats each as our tires were simply pincushioned full of thorns.  We were each carrying a spare tube but that would have left us still with a flat tire apiece, so there was nothing to do but push our bikes back to the truck, sorely disappointed but grateful that we'd only gotten 1.4 miles out and not, say, ten.

When we got back to the truck, we started pulling thorns out.  We stopped counting when we got to 200, and that was only the big ones; our tires were still riddled with tiny thorns that will require bright light and tweezers to remove.  And we're going to have to get them all, because if we miss any at all it'll mean an automatic flat as soon as the new tube is inflated.  Like I said, we were pretty disappointed - because it would have been a great, easy ride in such a beautiful spot - but we found that a cold PBR eases the pain a little.

All. Four. Tires. Are. Flat.

We also found a party going on over at the other side of the island: the sixth annual Antelope Island Stampede Festival, which we hadn't known was even going on until the visitors' center handed us a brochure.  Hot air balloons (only in the morning, so we missed those), tons of colorful kites, live music, food vendors and a BMX bike team demo managed to keep us entertained for a while.

This guy? Doesn't have flat tires (or any fear)

In order to break up the drive home, and also continue to keep ourselves entertained and ease the pain, we dropped by Squatters for a couple of Full Suspension pale ales (they've also got a very nice seasonal bitter on tap right now, but I was going to be one and done today and the pale ale was what I went with) and some food.  There were a decent number of folks there for such an off time on a Sunday afternoon, and quite a few people were enjoying the pleasant temperatures out on the patio - always a good time at Squatters.  And there at the bar we toasted to good plans gone amok: because even we didn't get to ride like we wanted, we still got outside on a nice day in a beautiful spot, and it's hard to hate that - no matter how many thorns there are.

stansbury island trail

With the wet and cold spring (what spring?) and extra-deep snowpack, our northern Utah hiking options are somewhat limited*.  But H found us a pretty good one - and one we hadn't done yet: the Stansbury Island Trail.  All told it was a 10.2 mile loop which we did in 3:16 walking (plus 0:39 minutes' worth of stops); the highest point on the trail was just 4,974', which was just 619' above the trailhead, and our total elevation gain (all the cumulative ups) was 1,140'.  Can you tell we got a new GPS?  Lots of data to play with!

Looking south into the Rush Valley

over the salt evaporation ponds

Stansbury Island is located about 37 miles west of SLC, right off I-80.  It's not technically an island since you can drive out to it, passing innumerable salt evaporation ponds run by Morton, Cargill and other salt companies, and it's part of the Stansbury Mountain range.  The cool thing about this hike is that once you climb up to the high point, you just follow the ancient Bonneville shoreline around the island: 15,000 years ago, the enormous Lake Bonneville that covered most of northern Utah was at about 5,200 feet.  The lake's shoreline left the "bench" along the Wasatch Front.  When the lake suddenly drained 500 years later, the lower shoreline, called the Provo Shoreline, at about 4,840', is what's found on Stansbury Island.  The Stansbury Island Trail traipses along this shoreline, winding in and out of several canyons, and working its way from the western side of the island to the eastern, skirting the southern edge.  The views of the Stansbury Mountains, the Rush Valley, the Oquirrhs and the Wasatch range were fantastic.

Tabbys Canyon

We pretty much had the place to ourselves, seeing just one guy on the trail and a couple of redneck MTBers at the finish (and not counting a bunch of guys shootin' guns into the gravel pits at the south end of the island).  The walk is pretty easy: the only up is right at the start, and the footing on the trail is either hardpack dirt or rock.  The strenuousness comes from the length of the trail and the fact that there is no shade at all.  Usually by June the vegetation is dry and crispy; because of our wet spring, the grasses were still green and the wildflowers were out, but it did get hot.

H on the bench

We found one tree near the trail to have our lunch under, at about 5.4 miles into the hike.  I had wanted to go back the way we came, thinking that descending to lake level and walking back on the jeep roads (which is the return bit of the loop) would be (1) hot, (2) buggy and (3) too close to the shooters for comfort.  H pointed out that we needed to minimize our time in the sun and walking back on the jeep roads would be quicker than following the trail in and out of the canyons.  So down we went, blowing on our whistles to let the gunmen know we were approaching (and we weren't really that close nor anywhere near their line of fire).  But I was right: it was very hot down at lake level and out of the breeze, and those little biting gnats got pretty bad for about a quarter-mile stretch.  (By the end of it, I ended up with several itchy bites and H looked like a poppyseed bagel with all the gnats stuck in the sunscreen and dried sweat on his face.)

Art shot!

Although our guidebook said the jeep roads were intuitive and would lead right back to the trailhead, they seemed to peter out and we slogged for a little over a mile on the main road (which is still dirt, so it's not that main of a road).  We saw a group of four or five jackrabbits - big bunnies - cross the road ahead of us and that was the only mammal sighting of the day.  It felt really good to get our boots off when we got back to the car and even though it was in the high 80s when we quit, the cooler managed to keep the PBRs cold enough to be palatable.

I don't think we'd count this as one of our favorite hikes, what with the road-walking, and I think it would be more fun in the fall when it's cooler and less buggy, and perhaps mid-week might bring fewer shooters.  But I don't think many people ever do that hike, so that makes it kind of special, and it was a good start to the hiking season.

* although a few more 85-90 degree days like Sunday should get the snow melting but good.