Antelope Island:
Buffalo Point
Lakeside Trail
hikers: Mark and Lecia
Distance: 1 + 4.8 = 5.8 miles
elevation gain: not much
Mark and I headed to Antelope Island today. I was really hoping to see the ice that forms near the island and even though that wasn't to be we did get to do a couple of hikes. It was cold, but not bitter cold, and it turned out to be great hiking weather. Especially at Antelope Island where there is no shade in the summer months. I seriously never knew there were such good hiking options in January. We weren't the only ones there either, but the parking lots weren't completely full.
We arrived at the toll booth and there were a few cars ahead of us. Just so you know,
There is a $15 charge per car!
There were also some bikes.
This is a simple map of the island. We decided to start at the Buffalo Point trail.
This is an out-and-back trail about a mile long. You do go uphill to get to the point, about 200 feet elevation gain, but it is an easy hike. One that is great for kids.
This time of year there was some snow and ice. That was really slick but we made it.
At the top you have a 360 view and there are all kinds of rocks to climb and hide in if that's your thing, meaning kids would love it here.
The views are amazing. After we took it all in, we drove a short way to the Lakeside Trailhead.
The Lakeside trail is a loop that goes along the lake and it also goes around the other side of Buffalo point. You could just go along the lake for a short way, but we just kept going and were rewarded on the other side of Buffalo Point. This trail is mostly, but not completely flat. There were bikes and even a couple of unicycles on it.
You get relatively close to the lake but there was always what looked like marshy or boggy area before the lake.
Here we are. I put on a hat when we first started hiking and it warmed up enough I didn't need it, but once you put a hat on you may as well leave it on. You can see the sun was bright.
We found many of these. All over. Some fresh and others in various states of decomposition. This is the home where the buffalo roam! I don't know if that looks big or not, but buffalo pies are definitely bigger than cow pies. The horse poop on the trail was nothing compared to these.
We eventually encountered actual buffalo or bison. The trail went pretty close to where they were grazing. That was our reward for doing the whole loop
By this time we had had enough hiking so even though we wanted to do Dooly Knob we had to save it for another day.
Antelope Island is a good place for hiking. For kids good hikes are the ladyfinger point trail, Buffalo Point, and a short distance on the lakeside loop. That would be fun on bikes too.
I haven't done any other trails but next time I would like to do Dooly Knob and the South Island trail. This time we spent all our time in the Buffalo Point area.
We stopped on our way and got sandwiches which was a good thing to do, or take your own food and water also. January is a great time to visit. I would like to go back when you can see the ice formations but you have to have specific winter conditions for that.
