Blanche and Lucy visit Antelope Island

We decided to visit Antelope Island just right near Salt Lake City Utah. It's an Island in Salt Lake which is accessible via a 9mile long causway.

Antelope Island is in the largest salt lake in the country - 2nd only to the Dead Sea in Israel in the world.
It's called antelope island because when it was discovered it was heavily inhabited by antelope....but now it's mostly inhabited by Bison and the most annoying little black flies that bite and bite and bite... I think this island should be called 'Black Fly Island' - the biting little black flies were the worst in the world!! We couldn't even go outside to tour the island because we were getting bitten alive.




In the distance you can see the causway that we used to cross over onto the Island and again cross to return to the mainland. We originally planned to stay a couple of nights but after one day with the biting flies - we couldn't leave fast enough.













Just like other areas in Utah - they had painted Buffalo here too.










The only place that the little black flies were not biting was by the visitors center - because there were high winds there and I think they were just being blown away by the winds.








The Island is beautiful and the view of the snow capped mountains reflected in the salt water was gorgeous.






You can see our RVs on the right in this photo and Co & Flo's RV is on the left in this photo - We had a beautiful view of the water from our rigs. We had to take this and most other photos from the car window while we drove around the island.







The Bison roam freely on Antelope Island - we read that there were about 600 of them on the island.










In order to go outside we had to wear these mosquito head gear - it was like being in a horror movie... there were so many little biting flies.









Cheryl was braver than me going out to shoot the setting sun outside (with her fashionable head gear of course.








Our one and only evening spent on Antelope Island ended with a lovely sunset and a full moon - which I shot Through the Window of the Rv...I was not going out of the RV for any photos....not worth the bites!!

More Photos from Capitol Reef

Today Blanche and Lucy (along with Luey and their peoples) visited Capitol Reef National Park.

The Signature feature of Capitol Reef is the Waterpocket Fold, a 100 mile long monocline, of fold in the Earth's crust that towers as much as 2,000 ft above it's eastern base.

The park runs along the Fremont river and this is where the Fremont Indians settled and later the Mormon Pioneers called home.





As we neared the Fold the sides of the cliffs seems so imposing and loomed over us.










This Panoramic Point formation is a closer look at a part of the waterpocket fold.











The Historic Gifford Homestead, pioneer dwellings that provided a glimpse of the 19th century Utah farm life greeted us as we started our tour of the park.









A little kitchen table with flowers from their garden, eggs from their chickens greeted us as we entered the little house.









The wonderful thing about the homesteads we visited is that they still had many of the original furnishings and dishes (and in this case) wash basins that were used in that period.









And of course every little homestead had is own little Out House behind the home.














Rounding the next bend - Cathedral Rock in the distance just took our breath away.







Cathedral Rock was one of my favorites - it was so impressive and magnificent with it's jagged edges and towering sides.









As we drove through the quarter million acre park - each bend would reward us with another vista. You can see a little RV - about the size of ours just ahead of us below the rock formation - this gives you a feel for the size of these cliffs.







As we rounded the bend this was the close up of Ripple Rock that we saw- the folds and layers of sandstone are wonderfully delicate.









Through the jagged rocks we would see beautiful flowers growing..... I couldn't help but think of our friend Linda who creates the most wonderful flower photos when I shot this one.
Linda this one's for you...











The drive through Sheets Gulch was sandy and rocky and we were happy for 4 wheel drive... but we were rewarded with beautiful vista like this one in Burro Wash where the time and weather formed the sandstone into lovely ripple and folds formations.











To give you a feeling of size - Cheryl & I stood beside the rock formation in Burro Wash.










If you double click and enlarge this photo it will tell you about the Old Fruita Schoolhouse in the next photo. This schoolhouse was in operation till 1941 and closed due to a decline in enrollment.






This is the old Fruita one room Schoolhouse built in 1896 by the Mormon settlers in Fruita who donated the land and the money for the teacher's salary for the education of their children.











Look closely at the next few photos to see ancient Pictographs and Petroglyphs painted and carved into the sandstone by some of the area's early native inhabitants - the Fremont Indians. We sat and stared for a long time to find all the areas where these drawings were located along the face of the canyon walls.... they are very subtle so not immediately apparent.





There are significance to each of the drawings that tell the story of these early inhabitants. Signage in the area explain many of what they though the drawings meant.






If you find any of these Petroglyphs difficult to see just double click on the photo to enlarge and see better.

Unfortunately we humans can ruin beauty... can you see the bullet holes in the pictographs? Stupid people with guns decided this would make fun target practice. Shame on them.

Blanche and Lucy have more adventures in Utah

Today we visited Capitol Reef National Park - we have lots more photos from this park including some wonderful Petroglyphs which we will post another time - but for now here are some photos that Cheryl took for you to enjoy.










Here's a little Homestead we found on a drive through Capitol Reef National Park.













This tells the story of the family who lived in that little cabin.










Here's a photo of the Elija Cutler Behunin family of 10 who lived in that little homestead.
















Does this old range bring back any memories - Cheryl took this photo and turned it to Sepia to give it a nostalgic feel.










Cheryl found this remnant of an old gas station to photograph. The little sign on the gas pump says: 'Too Pooped to Pump' - right on!










Cafe Diablo was our final stop in Torrey, Utah.... we decided we deserved a night out to dinner. The cuisine was a Myan fusion style and just delish!











This restaurant was once of the best we've seen and tasted since we started the trip. Even the masks in the bathroom didn't scare us anymore....

Our first experience in Dry Camping

Dry camping is when we just park the Rv somewhere without any 'hook-ups' no electricity, or water. But if you have a generator (as we do) you can produce your own electricity for heat, air conditioner, and lights. Also we all have a holding tank of water that we use when needed.

Dry Camping is another word for 'Boondocking' - where an RVer can park their campers for free overnight while driving through.

There are many places where RVers 'boondock' - Walmart is a popular place, many stores offer free camping as well as the Elks and some rest stops.



This is the front entrance of Cabela's a sporting good and clothing store in Provo Utah where we decided to park our RVs for the night. We did some shopping - got some great shorts, and shirts so it wasn't so free for us and that's what Cabela's - and other stores depend on.








Cabelas hosts more than just RVers passing through - they provide these Horse Corral areas for people who are traveling through the area with their horses.











As you can see there are many horses that are taking advantage of the corral here at Cabelas.











Here - one of the other "Boon-dockers" is walking her horse in the lot. This lady had just come from Colorado where she bought this 6yr old horse named 'Miss Kitty' & she was on her way back home to Vancouver to bring her horse home to meet the other horses she had there.






Cabelas is enormous - reminds me of Kittery Trading Post - but 10 times bigger. Other than all sort of clothing for every sport, it's a great place for guys to view all the equipment - tools - and clothing for hunting or fishing plus all the gear they may need. Everything for any outdoors-person.... not my thing but interesting to see.








This Wildlife display greets us as we enter the store.












The wildlife that is mounted and / or stuffed here has all been donated by hunters - other 'stuffed' wildlife in various exhibits within the store have ended up here because they met an accidental death.









More of the Wildlife on display














A close up of wildlife we saw inside the store.















The view from our Rv - we see Cabelas store with the sun setting on the snowy mountains.











Here is our RVs in the lot with alot of other RVers as we all got ready to call it a night till tomorrow.