Volume Overview: I always lay out a proposed route for each journey before leaving my home base in Billings, Montana. Part of the fun is the months of research and planning prior to departure! This spring’s trip is a bit abbreviated, but the plan is to dash west from Billings to Portland, Oregon, for some business; head down the west side of the Cascades and Sierra Nevada to Yosemite National Park in California; cross the mountains heading east to Reno/Sparks, Nevada; trek through the northern deserts of Nevada up to Twin Falls, Idaho; explore the Jackson Hole area of Wyoming; and then head back to Billings through Yellowstone National Park and Cody, Wyoming. Remember, the plan has changed and so we’re in Salt Lake City for this chapter. Let’s get rolling!
Salt Lake City Area
I’ve been to Salt Lake City a number of times (and have written about it in previous journals) so I tried to find something different to enliven my trip this time and I scored with two different, but equally interesting, out door experiences.
Tracy Aviary
A couple next to me in the rv park (which, incidentally was in and of itself another score, not only a great park but had a light rail stop right at the entrance so I could go all around town for $2.50 – yeah!) recommended the Tracy Aviary in Liberty Park as an interesting place to visit. Liberty Park is a large park of 80 acres only nine blocks southeast of downtown Salt Lake City but it’s a world apart. Originally a farm owned by Brigham Young, the city purchased the land from the Young estate in 1881 and Utah’s first trained landscape architect Joseph Don Carlos Young (a son of Brigham Young) won a competition to design the park. Dedicated in 1882, the legacy of lush landscaping under huge trees spreads out over three city blocks and on the southern edge sits the Tracy Aviary.
A Salt Lake City banker, Russell Lord Tracy, donated his bird collection to the city of Salt Lake City in 1937 and Tracy Aviary first opened to the public in 1938. Today it is one of two “open-air” aviaries in the United States. I have to say I was a bit dubious at first, but once I got inside it is clear that this is a first-class experience, both for the public and the birds. The individual aviaries are spread out over a beautifully landscaped 8 acres on the south edge of Liberty Park, with the landscaping just as beautiful as the birds.
And, of course, the star attractions, the birds!
And finally, “Montana-ites” will truly appreciate the last picture. My mother detested plastic pink flamingos and so periodically one of the family would carpet her front lawn with as many as they could find. This one’s for the Old Lady, who I’m sure is smiling down from above while her children are smirking with fond memories…
While Tracy Aviary is inside the city, my next destination was about 30 miles by vehicle northwest of downtown, Antelope Island.
Antelope Island
Antelope Island is the largest island in the Great Salt Lake. Famed explorers John C. Fremont and Kit Carson first visited the island in 1845 and named it after the herds of antelope they found there. The part of eastern Great Salt Lake is very shallow, especially in dry years, so large animals had little difficulty getting to the island. This view is looking west from the main land towards the island.
The island sits in the eastern part of the lake, which, again, is very shallow, and today is reached by a road on top of a causeway from the mainland to the east. This picture was taken from the island looking back towards the mainland, the straight line across the picture is the causeway with the road on top.
Today the island is a state park and the sandy beaches are packed with visitors on hot days. I’ve been part of that crowd in the past and can’t really see the attraction. Yes, the water is so salty that you can float, but that also means that it is very itchy and you really need to wash it off when you get out, which is hard to do since there is virtually no fresh water on the island. In addition, billions and billions of little annoying brine flies are always present. Even on the cold, rainy day that I was there, the front of the Lunch Box was plastered with the bugs and I had to stop at a car wash after I left the island. The island is approximately 15 miles long and 4 miles wide and has more than 40 freshwater springs, most on the east side, though no flowing streams of any consequence. Antelope, mule deer, bighorn sheep and buffalo are the largest animals that roam the land, though on the day I was there the buffalo herd was not visible from the road. Buffalo are not native to the island but 12 were introduced to the island in 1893 and their descendents now number around 500. One lonely bull grazed peacefully on a hillside above the shoreline.
The island rises from the lake on all sides and the views are amazing.
In 1848 Fielding Garr established a ranch near one of the strongest and most consistent springs on the southeast side of the island, originally assigned to do so by the Mormon Church in order to provide a place for their herds. The profits from the operation went to the Perpetual Emigration Fund, established by the church to assist emigrants to make the trek across the plains to the Salt Lake Valley. Once the railroads came the island became open to settlement and in the early 1900’s John Dooly purchased the entire island for one million dollars. The focus of the island turned to sheep for the next fifty years and then returned primarily to cattle as the ranch operated continuously until 1981, when the island became a state park. During all of this time human habitation on the island remained centered on the original Garr ranch holdings with minimal improvements made to the residence over time while the structures necessary for the ranching operation were a bit more updated as time went by. As is common with many ranches, the outbuildings needed for the operation of the ranch are much larger and in much better condition than the living quarters. Here is the view from above the complex looking out across the Great Salt Lake to the Wasatch Mountains in the distance.
The two story sheep shearing barn is the large metal building in the middle and the small white building is the blacksmith shop. The house and bunkhouse for the cowboys are nestled in the trees on the far side of a large dirt rectangle. Here are views of each taken from the same spot inside the complex, I just pivoted to my left to take the shot of the main house and bunkhouse.
When the ranch ceased operation in 1981 the accumulation of equipment, etc. of 140 years was there and today forms the various displays. On the left is the interior of the blacksmith shop, on the right is the work area on one side of the shearing barn.
The sheep shearing barn is a huge building with the sheep shearing pens on the second floor along the north wall. It is in the process of being restored.
The main house sits on the original 1848 foundation and has three bedrooms, two baths (one inside for the residents, one with a door to the outside for the cowboys.
Across the front porch are three doors, the first one on the right leads into the cowboys’ bathroom, the other two enter the kitchen and dining room. The sitting room opens off the dining room at the far end.
The view from the front porch east looks past the bunkhouse, spring house to the orchard and gardens.
The bunkhouse is small, meant only for sleeping.
The spring house was built over the original spring and was where perishables were kept in the cool and damp. Over the years the spring was covered and piped into a cistern, but the floor of the spring house is still wet from the seepage around the spring.
Just an interesting peek into the workings of real history.
The weather is turning bad with snow forescasted around Jackson, Wyoming, which was to be my next destination. So again an adjustment to “the plan” and now I am going to head northeast to West Yellowstone, dash through Yellowstone Park to Cody, and then north to Billings. Since there is no “new territory” I originally planned that this would be the last entry for this trip. However, an unexpected twist occurred….
Next up: The Final Chapter
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