Antelope Island is a primitive, vast expanse replete with bison, hiking, and gorgeous views of the Great Salt Lake. Even in the fall when the greenery has faded to yellow, it’s still incredible. The island used to be privately owned – the State of Utah purchased it and when they asked people what they wanted, folks said they wanted to see bison in a primitive habitat. That’s certainly what they got!

Coming into the park, you pay $10 to enter the park and $2 to drive across the causeway. We bought a $75 pass that gives us access to all of the State Parks over the next year, but still requires the $2 to cross the causeway each time we come back.

If you look at Google Maps, Antelope Island doesn’t actually appear to be an island. Then, when you switch to satellite view, you realize it used to be, before the Great Salt Lake started to shrink. The white area in the photo below is the salt from the Lake.

We love hiking, so of course we scoped out a middle of the road hike during our visit. Sentry Loop was a 9 mile, 1000 foot+ elevation gain hike that took us up and around Daddy Stump Ridge – apparently he lived on the island way back when Salt Lake City was founded. Terrible first name, but a great hike with views of SLC.

We had no idea going into it, but apparently Fall is the best time to visit Antelope Island – in the summer you’re 100% exposed in 80 degree heat, March to May is the bison birthing season so you may not see bison at all but you may see the babies, from April to the end of May it’s No-See-Um season (think of horse flies but worse, as if there could be anything worse than a horse fly!), and the winters are cold, like cold cold.

The best part is the bison – they’re incredible, and if you’re lucky you can see them up close. We realized we were a little too close when a Park Ranger ran at us with his arm flailing yelling to back up. Apparently they’ve been known to charge at people, especially when the babies are out. Don’t do what we did!