On the Road Again....

Getting the truck back late on Thursday put the pressure on to finish packing the truck.

Have you ever noticed how animals sense when you are about to leave them?
 

As I was packing my clothes I had to keep removing Spook, who kept planting herself squarely in the middle of the clothes laid out to pack.  Of course as soon as the camera comes out....she disappears!

Kitties aren't making this trip  I am sure they will be happy at home.

I loaded up the trailer (during a spring rain and hail storm.)  The weather report indicated a stormy couple of days and they weren't wrong.  Darn!!   And soon we were sailing down the road while I made a mental note of all the things I inadvertently left behind.

We saw rain.... rivers of rain running off the highway.  It was so good to look in my mirrors and see all the lights working perfectly, knowing other drivers could see me too.  We saw snow, hail, fog and finally...

  A brilliant rainbow.

 Traveling the passes was a bit of a white knuckle affair but we made it through safely and proceeded on to Missoula where we stayed at a Crackle Barrel restaurant and started the next morning with pancakes before our travels.  Thank-you Crackle Barrel, the rest was great, the pancakes yummy.

They say it will be Spring in Montana soon....

                       I'm not so sure about that..... it was mighty chilly at night!

Our Destination for night two was in Utah....

We would still be at a high enough elevation to be cold at night this time of year but then we will be dropping in elevation so we anticipate more comfortable night temperatures. 

I have long anticipated a visit to Antelope Island.  It is an large (42 square miles)  island surrounded by the Great Salt Lake and is joined to the the shore by a long roadway hardly wider than the two lanes.   It seems rather barren with few trees and  covered mostly with grasses during the growing season but actually is teaming with wildlife.   We arrived with enough time to set up camp and go on a buffalo hunt before sunset.  

 

We found buffalo graszing peacefully in several places and we kept our distance but did enjoy watching grazing free on the island.  While not native to Antelope Island, they were introduced in 1893.   At the time there were fewer than 1,000 head of Bison in all of North America.  The herd is maintained at between 500 and 750 buffalo.

Not only did we watch the buffalo.....they watched us.

We visited the historic Fielding Garr Ranch.  The first building was a small log cabin built in 1848 and the ranch was continuously inhabited until  1981.  We found a strange "ranch" inhabitant on the grounds today.  A buffalo goes where a buffalo wants.

The grass was greener

 

Another highlight were the views from Buffalo Point.  

 We climbed to the  observation area at sunrise.





The views were breathtaking.

Lastly more glimpes of wildlife on Antelope Island.

Yes, there are antelope on the island.

                                        Stay tuned for more Utah tales to come.