I touched Great Salt Lake
Today, Monday April 14/14 we drove out to Antelope Island State Park to get a good view of Great Salt Lake.  Antelope Island is the largest island in Great Salt Lake.   Great Salt Lake is currently 75 miles long by 28 miles wide.  It covers 1700 square miles.  Water flows into the lake from four rivers and they carry 2.2 million tons of minerals into the lake each year.  The lake has no outlet so the water can leave only by evaporation.  High concentrations of minerals are therefor left behind.  Most aquatic fish cannot live in the high salt level except for huge quantities of brine shrimp (remember the sea monkeys we had as kids? ), brine flies and algae.  These are the primary food sources for millions of migrating birds.

We drove out to the island on this long causeway that divides two parts of the lake, one side was a lot more saline than the other.  Along the way we saw so many birds, there were tons of avocets,  stilts and gulls.

There were some wild flowers - pretty yellow and small little purple ones.

We really didn't see this big guy until we went around some bushes, and there he was close up and personal. There is a herd of 500 to 700.  There are also antelope, mule deer and bighorn sheep but we did not see any of those.

We climbed up these rocks through a short trail and got a great view along the way.  All the while we were walking along there were hundreds of gulls flying and squawking.  It was neat to see their shadows on the ground as we walked along.  There was a flock of cormorants flying by and also quite a few herons.

That is a heron sitting on the rock in the middle as a matter of fact.

 The spot in the middle is called egg island, thousands of California gulls nest here.

This area was nothing like anything either of us have seen before and we were glad we took the time to drive out here and check it out.  There was a lot of quartz rocks and it was beautiful.  The sand was also really nice.

 I was determined to touch the lake so we walked down and I did just that.  Along the way there were a lot of bird carcases. I googled it when we got home and found out that  more than 15,000 birds died on the lake last fall. Most of the birds were eared grebes.
Testing done at the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin has confirmed that the birds died of avian cholera. Avian cholera is a disease that sweeps through grebes and other birds on the lake almost every year. The dead birds don't pose a threat to humans but it was sad anyway.

 Great Salt Lake is a very important bird area, over 160,000 California gulls live here.  Over 600,000 wilsons phalaropes were counted here in a single day. 250,000 American avocets nest here along with 5 - 18,000 pelicans.  It is also the most important nesting area for white faced ibis.

 Can you see the salt on my fingers?  amazing!

After a wonderful morning of exploring we stopped for lunch at Cracker Barrell.   Then we saw a "ranch" market along the way and decided to go and check it out.  We were definitely in the minority but I love looking at all the different Mexican foods and trying to read the Spanish words.  The sign by the front door said "police parking only" so we didn't stick around too long.  I did get a cucumber and a lovely bunch of radishes for 85 cents tho.
Tomorrow we start heading north.  It will take us about 5 days to get to Estevan where our parents and some of our siblings live.  Then off to Prince Albert once their *()^^%$$#$@ snow melts.