Antelope Island

I feel so ashamed. Of all my years living in the greater Salt Lake area, I have never, ever, in my life, been to Antelope Island! I don't know why. My family has just never made the drive out there. Also, I had no idea it was considered a State Park! We had to pay $9 to get in. Anyway, the reason why we finally decided to go out there was to go hiking on Saturday. I chose probably the most strenuous hike on the island. It's called Frary Peak and it's a 4 mile hike to the highest point on the island. Unfortunately, we got a late start and did not make it to the summit. :( I'm still sad about that. We probably got about 3 miles up and then had to turn back. We were afraid the park would close before we got back down. Little did we know, we had plenty of time. But, we still have some beautiful pictures and sore legs to show for it.The weather was perfect for doing this trail. It was overcast all day. The sun peaked out at us a couple of times, but for the most part it was nice. There weren't any trees for cover, so we were glad the sun was hiding.The island was pretty much what I expected it to look like, but more. I had no idea the views would be so amazing. All the greenery reminded me of something you would see in Scotland. The real views come from the middle of the island. Not around the edges.Another big reason why we didn't make it to the summit is because the bugs on the island can REALLY get to you. They have a real problem when it comes to bitting gnats. We thought they would be the worse at the bottom of the island because it's closer to the water. But, no. The bugs like it up high, apparently. By the time we turned around I had them in my hair, my ears, AND my nose. They were terrible! They warned us at the entry gate, but we still insisted on going. (Especially after a 40 minute drive to get there!)Me rockin' some seriously white legs. Sexy. Howie really likes to be outdoors, he just doesn't know it until he gets there. This is the reason why we got there so late. I had a bit of trouble getting him out of bed. Sometimes you just gotta take his blankets away, flip on the light, and hope he stirs until he just decides to get up. We ended up leaving the house around 12:30 and didn't start the hike till around 2:30pm. If it were all up to me we would've been up there when the island opened, but that's just me. Funny thing is, while we were hiking, Howie says to me "Truth be told, it would've been better if we started this earlier." Just then the heavens opened and shined down on me for that glorious moment. He had a big "I TOLD YOU SO" coming his way. The picture below shows how far we got. That peak in the middle is the summit. I wanted to keep going, but due to time restraints, we couldn't. Maybe someday we'll try it again. We're thinking about trying it again this year. The island really is beautiful. We had a lot of fun checking it out. We've heard there was a little stand on the island where you could buy buffalo burgers so we went to find it. Unfortunately, it was closed when we got there. Man, everything closes early on Saturdays! Anyway, it was a really fun day.