Trailing Ahead : Adventures in Hiking Utah

The temperature was set to take a dip last Saturday with some partial cloud cover, so we decided to do one of the shadeless hikes in our guide, 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Salt Lake City. I've never been to Antelope Island before. It was great and the weather was perfectly obliging.

The goal was Frary Peak, which we fell short of by about 100 feet. The trail is great up to Stringham Peak, which is really close, but then turns to garbage. I'm not a real scrambler, so we turned back. Still, we got plenty of great views and as I said, it was a great day.

We saw the bison herd a ways off in the morning as we started.

Pretty deserty terrain at the start of the trail.

These were everywhere at the bottom of the trail, but had mostly already gone to seed.

If you're in for a shorter hike you can head off to Dooly Knob at this point. Maybe another day for us.

First glance over the saddle at the great salt lake on the other side of the island.

We saw lots of lizards.

The bees were all over these thistles all along the trail.

At one point the trail winds through these rocks and up a ridge.

Daisies!

Sego Lilies dot the trail.

Stansbury Island off in the distance.

We've made it to the top of Stringham Peak with its Star-Wars-esque communications tower.

This dead tree has character. We saw a number of lightening-blackened junipers as well.

From the top, there's the car, the little blue speck on the bottom corner of the lot.

There's Frary. So close and yet so far.

Heading back.

There's my love.

We saw these steps on the way back. Our guide had described them, but Dixie couldn't find a way up to them. The trail heads through the rocks instead.

Back down, the buffalo are close to the road now.