Bison or Bust

I know I've mentioned Antelope Island before in previous trail-riding posts.  It is a large island with rugged terrain that juts up out of the Great Salt Lake, and has herds of antelope and a large bison herd who live on it.  Every year in the fall, the bison herd is rounded up from the island and driven into pens at the south end/ranch end of the island so the babies can be checked on, and various vet-based things like shots and general checkups can be had.  My endurance-riding buddy, MJ, and her husband put on an endurance ride on the island every April, and she had mentioned the roundup was a fun way to spend the day on your horse.  The island is closed for this week except for those folks who have registered for the round-up.  It sounded like great fun, so I signed Diggs up as my riding partner and we went out on Friday.

We left the house at early o'clock under the light of a gorgeous hunter's moon.

I drove up with MJ, since each of us was only taking 1 horse, and we met her husband, Dean, and the Farrells (Pam, John, Dan - and PS - Dan took a lot of these photos including the one above).  This was a really good test for Digger.  He has done trail rides with smaller groups, but he's never had to get out of the trailer in a strange place filled with trailers and horse panels, and so many horses.

There's MJ on the left with her boy, Beau, and Dean with his gray mare on the right.  You can see how stressed out Diggs is - he was totally content at this point to just stand and eat his breakfast.  After we got tacked up, we had a meeting with the ranch manager.  And the bad news was.....they already had all the bison moved by the end of the previous day of the roundup.  Due to some controlled burns on the island to help regenerate the grasslands, most of the bison were already en route to the southern end of the island, where the pens are, before the roundup started, so it didn't take a lot of work to move them the rest of the way.  Bummer.

BUT! That meant we got to take a leisurely ride on the island.  I can't think of a nicer way to spend a warm, sunny fall day.  There was a large group headed out with MJ and Dean, but there were a few....*ahem*.... badly trained and somewhat wild horses in that group, so our little group of 4 (Me, Pam, John and Dan) opted to ride out the trail to the southern beach and see the water.

The fall colors were absolutely gorgeous and the sky was a bright, bright blue.

We rode along the base of the mountains that run along the spine of the island. The footing here is great.  Nice, packed sandy soil with only a few rocks, here and there, and the trail is wide enough you can ride next to someone and have time to chat.  To our right-hand side, as we rode south, are the hills pictured above, and to our left, facing east, we had a beautiful view of the beach and the Great Salt Lake.

We rode until we reached the southern-most tip of the island and then we turned west and headed uphill until we peaked at the top of the mountains, and could look down over the other side, towards the western half of the Lake.

The ground up here is much more rocky and there aren't true trails on it, but we turned north again and rode along just beneath the peaks of the mountains as we headed back to ridecamp.  You can see, however, where the bisons' feet have turned up the grass, so they've obviously had no trouble finding their way through this area (click for bigger).

On the way back, we spotted a lone old bull across a ravine from us.  He didn't even bother picking his head up and just wandered along, grazing slowly.  Some of the older bulls (which are massive and cranky) are too dangerous to try to bring in on horseback, so rather than even try , they will send out a helicopter on Saturday evening to look for any of the old rogues, and convince them from the air to move a bit further south so the rangers can keep an eye on them and provide food for them over the winter.  I got a couple of pictures of the old man, but frankly, from the distance with my little point-n-shoot camera, he looks like a large rock, so I won't post those for you.

When we arrived back in Ridecamp, MJ was getting dinner ready for the group.  Diggs had done SO well, until it was time to relax, and then the Dorkboy in him leapt into action.  Just after this picture was taken, he decided to try to demolish MJ's expensive living-quarters trailer.

We had a "discussion" about proper camp-out, non-Dorkboy behavior, then, he and I.

Dan's bestest girl, Abbey, obviously had a great time, and was happy to take a snooze in the sun at the trailer wearing her commemorative round-up bandana.  Yeehaw!

Next year, we'd like to go again, but I think we'll go earlier in the week (like maybe the first day, Wednesday) and actually get to see the bison.  Despite that, it was an absolutely gorgeous day to spend outside with good friends, a (relatively) good horse, and a great trail.

All for now......

Comments

[Cathy]

You know I wanted to ride Antelope Island 50 for years - the ride was no longer on the calendar for many years. So I have to live vicariously (and viciously) thru you. Go earlier next year!!

See you next weekend (Moab or Bust!!)

[Carol]

You guys do the coolest things! Oh Diggs baby, what a little devil ;)

[mary lou]

Looks like great fun - dorkboy behavior not included!

[Margaret]

What an amazing landscape, and it sounds like a great day!

[Sheepish Annie]

Fabulous pictures! Thanks so much for sharing those. I'm glad you were able to stop Digger before he got around to taking the trailer to the ground. Boys like to take things apart and see how they work...they can't help themselves. They need us to see the error of their ways!

[Marcia Cooke]

Makes me wish I were about twenty years younger and still riding! Very cool!

[Robin]

Love reading about the horses and oh your pictures! I'm tagging you for 8 Random Things and hope you don't mind. It's kind of like that recipe chain letter -- you never know if the person you send it to will mind or not!

[Diane]

Man, I love reading about your new rides! How cool was that!

[Kit]

Ahh, that's the perfect idea for a warm fall day. If only I had a horse and a place to ride him. :D

[margene]

I've been thinking about you and the ride all weekend. Thanks for posting about it. Too bad about no bison sightage, but the views are incredible. Nice camera work, Dan.

[PJ]

What a ride! Love all the pictures!

[June]

These pictures were wonderful! So glad you got away and had a nice time out with friends!

[Kim]

Oh my...........I so would have loved to have joined you on that ride! What a wonderful time you all must have had!

[anne]

wow, that sounds so nice, and the scenery is really grand. SO not like ohio . . .

[cyndy]

Your description and photos of the ride are so enjoyable! Thank you! And Digger really is such a handsome horse...I mean, how can you have a "discussion" with him? One look into those eyes and I would melt....

[Birdsong]

what a great adventure, even without bison to round up. Thanks for sharing all the wonderful photos.

[Laurie]

That looks like FUN.

[Teri S.]

It sounds like you had a great time, despite the lack of bison. After seeing all the gorgeous photos of Utah country by you and Margene, I keep thinking we need to move westward. Have a great weekend!