So this morning, despite the sun, it's only 27 degrees when I arrive on Antelope Island. (Brrr!) There is even a thin layer of ice near the edge of the water (and very few ducks and gulls).
I should be hiking Sentry Peak today (did White Rock last week) but with over an inch of rain, I'm sure the road will be frozen mud this morning. Which is fine until it melts into slippery mud. So I'm planning to hike White Rock again (or perhaps up to Elephant Rock).
But for now, I head turn left and head down to the Ranch. Hoping for the return of the animals, they've been pretty invisible the last two weeks when I've been here. (The storm might have moved them around a bit.)
Well, it's much of the same "no animals" as I pass behind the Visitor's Center and reach the first pull-off. The mountains across the bay are all snow covered again (yea!) but they're are hard to see with the sun still very low in the sky. (It'll be better looking when I come back.)
I continue on down the hill towards Frary Peak. I do see a herd of bison on top of a ridge (just small black dots in the distance).
I pass Frary Peak and before the next pull-off, I see a bunch of trucks pulled off the road. They must be watching something.
I pull up and see nothing but a bunch of hunter looking men with their spotting scopes all pointed up at the rocks below the Frary Peak. As I roll by, I ask one of the men; they said there are deer in the rocks.
I continue on laughing as I find it somewhat ironic that the hunters are scoping the island's large buck instead of finding deer that they can actually hunt. (No hunting on the island.) Perhaps it's just satisfying their dreams of that trophy buck that didn't happen this year!
Hey, there's snow on the Island's mountains too!! First time this season!
As I roll up on the side road to the Frary Homestead, I see a bunch of bison near the parking lot. I never been to the Homestead but I'm going to the parking lot now! I pull up and the bison are very near the parking lot. I get out of my car and stand behind the log fence and watched as the bison slowly move by. I can hear them chewing and huffing.
All with their fresh new ear tags.
There's a little guy in with the herd.
(Last year, during the bison physicals, they separated the Mom and young calves holding them into a pen for the winter. Either this Mom/calf pair missed the physicals or the DNR decided not to separate them this year.)
As the last of the group moves by, one gets a little "frisky" (or dominance behavior).
And then butt heads a bit.
Before moving on.
I move on too and not too much further down the road is a massive herd of bison. One large group in the meadow and one a bit above the meadow.
Continuing on, I see two animals on the beach. Too big to be coyote, they are Pronghorn!
One takes off running up the island (north). The other takes a bit of time before following. Not sure what scared them to take off but they were running (not trotting).
I continue on and soon I'm at the Ranch. There I decide that I'm not taking a long hike today; there's a bit of a wind and it's cold. But I will head up to Bison Point (only about 1/2 mile on way).
So I start heading back up the island. I'm not far from the Ranch when I see a large group of Pronghorn running through the sagebrush towards the road. I stop but there's another car coming in the opposite direction. I'm not sure they see the animals. I'm praying they stop. The Pronghorn start running across the road and the car stops as a few animals pass right in front of their car! Whew!
The remaining animals (and there are a bunch of them) stop and head a bit north before passing behind their car.
After they cross, they continue to head north some still running and others slow down or even stop to graze.
And the Pronghorn keeps coming across the road! There has to be over 50 of them! I count the last ones and I get 23 and there were plenty more that crossed before! How exciting!! (And I never saw these guys on my way to the Ranch - very stealthy.)
I continue on past the large herd of bison (and the other herd from the Homestead). And I see the 2 Pronghorn I saw earlier still moving north (while all the other animals are moving south).
I see the hunter's trucks in the distance and as I roll up, I see the 2 deer the one hunter is looking at in the grasses. A doe
and a big guy!! He's a beauty!!
I watch for a while before continuing on and eventually over to the west side of the island and up to the Bison Point parking. Beautiful views as always! I start up the trail
There's a lone bison down there!
And soon reach the top and look towards Elephant Rock to the south.
I head north through the rocks for a good view north.
Time to head back.
Great day!
