Unsinkable in the Great Salt Lake!

10 Aug 2010--Marie joined us today, bright and early this morning, about 10 AM our time here. After picking her up at the airport we went back to the RV to get settled, eat a little something, change into our bathing suits, and then headed out to Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake.

This stitch photo shows the causeway we had to drive over to get to the island. We are on the island, looking back at Salt Lake City as you are viewing it.

There are 2 bays you can go swimming in. The one we stopped at is called White Rock Bay, and we literally had it to ourselves. here are 2 stitch pics so you can see what we drove up and looked at...really beautiful area!

It didn't take us long to figure out why we had the run of the place. We were told that the area has been in drought conditions for the past couple years, so the lake is at an all-time low, but White Rock Bay ended up being a far further walk to the water's edge than we could have imagined. These 2 pics are taken from where we had to get out of the car, and then you have to blow them up to see where the actual water is (way over by the mountain). After a little traipse thru the sand, we were walking thru almost salty mud for what seemed like a mile.

This 1st pic is when we were all still together, while the 2nd pic is of Cathy waiting for Marie and I to catch up...haha.

So does everyone remember being taught in grammar school that you can float effortlessly in the Great Salt Lake? If you don't, a little reminder here. This talks about the water having nowhere to go, no outlet, so the only way it goes away is as it evaporates, leaving behind nothing but salt. In something we read we were told that because of that evaporation, salinity levels range between 4% and 28% here, as compared to the ocean at about 3%.

You truly float effortlessly in this water...it is an amazing feeling as you sort of sit down, it pushes you back up.

This video is titled "She Ain't Heavy, She's My Sister".


Trying to lay on your stomach is a different story. Marie's in trouble here...can't turn over. And then she gives the OK sign as I am praising the Lord for her safety!

The only 2 things that can survive in/at this water are brine shrimp and brine flies. We didn't realize how many flies were there until we were getting out of the water...I mean millions!!!! It was totally gross! We didn't know whether to cover our eyes, nose, mouth, ears or what. Marie is covering her face with her hat trying to get away from them. Cathy is sitting down as they accumulate on the back of her shirt, but even this pic doesn't do justice to how many there were.

As we walked back up to where the car was we saw several animal tracks, the 1st one being antelope and the 2nd we think are of a badger. There were a couple more tracks that we couldn't figure out, and somehow they didn't come out on my camera.

There were lots of feathers and bones on the ground also...we think these must have been a Canadian Goose, just because of how big they are.

Look at the salt dried on Marie's shorts and on her shoulder/back as we are leaving. Then check out the video to see how much is on the ground. It seemed to get thicker and thicker as the day went on.

Once we left the beach we drove the length of the island to admire the scenery and to look for animals.

We saw some buffalo, actually quite a few of them. Look how salty this one's skin is...they just lay down in the stuff, and believe us when we say that some of these salty areas are hot.

We saw a couple antelope, too.

And then up at the visitor's center quite a few of the Barn Swallows and their babies. Click on the pic and you can see about 4 babies begging for food.

There are a few decorative buffalo placed on the island I would think they would decorate antelope on an island named after them, but they chose buffalo! Marie obviously loves this 1st buffalo, but check out the 2nd one. She looks like she is afraid it might charge!

These tiny birds are called Wilson's Phalaropes, and there are thousands of them here. They are amazingly small...almost look fake they are so small floating on the water. You can see their size in relationship to the other bird in the water near them. We read that they have been known to have as many as 600,000 of them here on a given day. The 2nd pic shows a whole bunch of them together.

So fun was had by all on Marie's 1st day with us. She is exhausted from the combination of the flight and then the trek we had to endure getting back and forth to the water's edge...as I type this I can hear her snoring in bed! haha More fun on the schedule for for tomorrow...and Saturday is the biggest day...we have scheduled a Hot Air Balloon ride!!! Say a prayer for us!!!