About 30 minutes north of Salt Lake City, you’ll find a literal oasis just a few miles west of I-15. If you’ve ever traveled in this part of Utah, you no doubt have noticed the urban sprawl and hoards of people.
There’s an interesting (and beautiful) oasis, just north of Salt Lake City Utah, called Antelope Island.
This state park is not far off I-15 and while the hustle and bustle of the interstate corridor can be chaotic, within a few minutes of heading westward you can find a really neat, and calm sanctuary among the salt flats on the great salt lake.
This area can attract a variety of water fowl and is home to a number of different species. Bison are commonly seen, as our coyotes, falcons, hawks, a wide variety of birds, deer, and antelope.
I was fortunate to visit this area in November and while I didn’t have a lot of time to spend, I spotted everything on this list other than the deer and pronghorns.
In the days leading up to the visit, the weather hadn’t been all that good all along the trip from Iowa. From ice to gale force winds, the photo ops were few and far between.
It had rained quite steadily the night before, but by morning the clouds were just starting to break up a little at dawn which allowed a few nice landscape shots of which included Frary Peak and a large part of the island.
One of the goals of this trip was to get more acquainted with the use of an old Canon FD 500mm 4.5 lens, coupled with a Sony a6000 mirrorless camera. This is a manual focus glass and while I did get a few decent shots with it, I found coming away with good flight shots to be a challenge (but many were close).
With practice and better preparation I think I can improve here and I love the idea and challenge of using it. I may take some time to discuss this set up in more depth down the road once I get more comfortable with it.
No matter the photographic outcome, I did enjoy the morning in this special place and look forward to going back again in the future.
For more information on Antelope Island visit this page from the Utah DNR.
All images are under copyright © Mark Washburn