Antelope Island

If you have ever thought about going to Antelope Island...think again! With the few days together with daddy, we thought we would explore some of Utah. Both of us had a few great memories from our childhood about going to the Great Salt Lake. The kids love water, sand, buckets and the great outdoors- so we thought why not?

After checking out the stats to the different beach locations online, we thought Antelope Island sounded like a good match because the others all talked about bugs and rocky sand. We loaded in the car and drove all the way out to our destination. We first wet up by the visitors center which was a good choice for only one reason, we were able to see a buffalo. The rest of what I saw would only cause me nightmares and anxiety for a few days. Might I remind you that this is the desert, and there is tons of sage brush lining the streets, paths, and clumped together as far as the eye can see. Each bush is webbed to its neighboring bush, and living on the webs are millions of Brown Recluse spiders. Talk about the eeriest thing you have ever seen. This entire island is etched with them. Just standing where we were looking out at the buffalo caused me to see thousands of these little suckers-yuck!

(Checking out the sight of the buffalo and spiders)

(One of the ugly, creepy crawlers up close)

So, we got back in the car (itching all over) and headed to the beach. It was a scorching 106 degrees outside and the sand was unbearably hot. the parking lot was about 1/2 mile walk through sand to the waterfront. I had Jocelyn in the carrier on me with all of our water toys and towels, and Kylin carried the other two through the burning sand all the way to the water. Once we got a little closer- I took Koleson and we ran for the water with his bucket in hand. I think the water excited me so much due to the heat and long trek out that I didn't notice the foul smelling water- at first! It only took walking to the water before I turned around and ran the other direction flailing my arms in all directions to rid myself of the little bugs that had swarmed me. I got to Kylin and realized I had left Koleson standing out there with all the bugs. Meanwhile, Koleson had started crying because bugs were all over him and his bucket. The smell was awful, the bugs persistent, heat scorching, sand burning- and the trek back to the car seemed twice as long than it had coming! I honestly don't know what kind of bugs/flies/gnats those were that attacked us, but they wouldn't leave us alone once they found us. We kept rolling down the window on the way home trying to get the stowaways out of the car! Needless to say, that was a once in a lifetime experience...glad we did it and glad we will never do it again!

(Just to give you an idea of how long we had to put up with the tortuous sand and pesky bugs)

So What was it that made those childhood memories so magical?