The West (Day 4)- Torrey, UT to Antelope Island State Park, UT

Wonderland RV Park in Torrey served us well, but it is time to put down our sticks and get going.

Torrey was founded in the 1800s.  Butch Cassidy even rode his horse through town on occasion.  

And several pioneers from Fruita ended up relocating here.  

We stopped by the cemetery before heading to Antelope Island.

It is 270 miles from Torrey to Antelope Island (which is north of Salt Lake City).

A1 is doing great, even after four straight days in the car.

As happy as she is, I am constantly handing her new toys to play with.  I am a big fan of her Aquadoodle.  It is pink on one side and green on the other, and has a pen filled with water.  When you draw on it the color underneath shows through and then it dries so you can reuse it.  It is super lightweight too.

Toys these days are so cool.

Water on both sides of us means we are almost to Antelope Island State Park (you enter from a bridge on the north side of the island).

Currently, the water levels are low, so technically it is a peninsula, but when water levels are higher it is actually an island.

Native Americans used the island to some extent but there isn't enough artifacts to decipher how much.  

Mormons made their first trek to the island in 1843 in order to hunt the antelope they saw on the island.

They must have been starving.

7.5 million birds (257 species) use Salt Lake.

Antelope Island was founded in 1981 when the State of Utah bought the historic Garr ranch on the southern part of the island, completing their collection of the land.  They bought the northern portion in 1969, while Neil Armstrong was walking on the moon (kidding, I don't know the date they purchased it).

We saw our first antelope before arriving at our campsite at Bridger Bay Campground.

So, this is our spot for the night.  

Bridger Bay Campground is amazing.  There are three tiny campgrounds on the island.  And at Bridger Bay they all have shade structures.  The sites are very far apart from each other so you don't easily hear your neighbors.  I love it here.

So does A1.

This little person is adventurous.  She doesn't need me to walk around with her, but she lets me do it.  

For dinner we had our new favorite camping food, pre-made salads from Trader Joe's.  They have a variety of different ones, they are individual-sized, healthy, easy, and are really satisfying.

A1 had cookies.

Kidding.

Kind of.

In order to maximize our time here (only one night!) we decided to go for a drive to look for bison.  

Oh, I forgot to mention the bison!  In the late 1800s bison were brought to the island in order to prevent their extinction (there were only 800 in North America at that time).  The Garr family, who owned most of the island, bought twelve of them.  Now there are over 500, and we are going to find some of them.  They tend to hang out on the east side of the island, along the road to Garr Ranch.

Luckily A1 is tall enough to see all of the roaming creatures from her car seat, so we don't have to make a production of getting her in and out of the car.

These bison look friendly enough.

Oh wait, never mind.  

Scary.

Isn't it funny?   They have some non-aggressive and some aggressive bison road signs.

Hmmm, which bison are down here?  Probably a mix, but we aren't about to find out.

This big guy was right on the side of the road.

A1 LOVED him.

I have no idea how many bison and antelope we saw on our drive.  

A lot.  

Two words.

There are so many animals here it feels like we are on safari (without the lions).

The sunset from our campsite was incredible. 

The sun doesn't set until about 9:30pm over summer.

Since we are basing A1's bed time off of CA time she stayed up late enough to see the sunset too, so she can go to dreamland with this image in her mind.

Bridger Bay Campground is the best.  

We will definitely be back.