9/27/17 - Antelope Island State Park

(11/10/17 - Still catching up...this is the last place we went in September.)

We'd been through Utah several times but hadn't gone to the Great Salt Lake since our honeymoon.  There's a state park out in the middle of the lake, so we decided to check it out. We drove across the Causeway to Antelope Island State Park.

You have to drive across a 7-mile long causeway to get to Antelope Island, which is the largest island in the lake.

There's a marina on the right just before the end of the causeway but this time of year there was only a single boat tied up to the dock.  We drove past it to the Visitor Center, visited, then headed out to look for buffalo.  (Okay, bison.  I know they're bison.  I grew up saying buffalo, so it slips out sometimes.  I'll try to do better.)

 

After Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and Custer State Park in South Dakota, the island has the largest free-roaming buffalo bison herds in the US.  Some of them even get painted.

John Charles Fremont mapped the island in 1843, then a few years later named it after dinner.  That is, he named the island for the meat they shot for dinner there.  There are still about 200 pronghorn on the island--look closely and you can see them. (Antelope are officially pronghorn--just pronghorn, not even pronghorn antelope.  I have no idea why Fremont didn't call it Pronghorn Island, but it does sound kind of awkward.)

We'd seen quite a few buffalo bison in the distance as we drove south towards Fielding Garr Ranch.  Then we finally saw some near the road.  I think every buffalo bison I've ever seen is scruffy.  I wonder when they actually finish shedding and grow a new coat.                                   
          
The Fielding Garr Ranch was established in 1848 when widower Fielding Garr and his 9 children were sent by the LDS Church to maintain the tithing herds of cattle and sheep.  The church sold the ranch in 1870  and it was renamed the Island Ranching Company.  It continued as a working ranch until it was sold to the state of Utah in 1981.  It's pretty much as it would have been in 1973--only rustier.

We wandered around looking in the buildings, checking out the machinery, trying to figure out what some of it was used for.  I knew the silo was for storing grain.  George had to tell me the other thing was for stacking hay--the brochure calls it a portable "Jayhawk Stacker".  It's similar to the bigger ones we saw in Montana.  The giant chair is just for fun.

 

The original adobe ranch has has been turned into a museum.

This was a working sheep ranch, so it's no surprise to find a wagon they call a "Sheep Camp".

And, of course, if you have sheep, you have to shear them.  The corrugated metal Shearing Barn was built in the 1920s.  By then the island was one of the largest sheep operations in the western US.  It has an engine used to power the shearing stations.  I had no idea they would have been so automated, but this mechanized equipment let them shear a sheep in minutes instead of half an hour by hand. If you're shearing 10,000 sheep, that would definitely speed things up!

They could hold 1,000 head of cattle in the corrals.  This is the backside of part of the building.  Later they had farrowing pens for pigs, and now old trucks and farm machinery are stored there.

On the way back, we saw more buffalo bison.  This big bull was sticking out his tongue, which seems like an odd thing for a buffalo bison to do.  I'll ponder this some other time.

 

More pictures of Antelope Island

9/17/17 - Birds of Prey Center

11/3/17 - Got a little sidetracked when we got to Arizona and saw friends we hadn't seen since last year.  We went here in September.

The World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho, is the headquarters for The Peregrine Fund, an international non-profit organization that conserves endangered raptors around the world.  We missed the entrance sign, and were going to stop on the way out, but forgot.

Entrance is in the Gift Shop, then out the back door.  There were a few birds in cages next to the building.  This Bateleur Eagle is from Africa, where he's "Near Threatened".  Don't think I'd even heard of this one before.

There was a Turkey Vulture right next door to him.  We've seen these guys before.  They live in both North and South America, so are pretty common.  There was a volunteer who was talking about how beneficial they are because they eat carrion, which helps prevent disease.  Like many species of wildlife, the use of DDT for insect control in the 50s and 60s killed a lot of them off, but their population status is now considered "Least Concern". (I'm pretty sure that doesn't just mean someone didn't like these rather ugly birds.  The eagle is much prettier, but maybe the vulture's mother found him adorable.)  

Just around the corner is the Condor Cliffs Exhibit.  The California Condors are the original project of the Center.  These condors are the largest bird in North America--and the most endangered one.  Even George's wingspan isn't as wide as a condor's.  

In 1982 there were only 22 left in the world, and every single one of them was placed in captive breeding programs.  This place has more than any other facility.  They breed them here, and release young ones at Vermilion Cliffs National Monument in Arizona, just north of the Grand Canyon.

Again, not a candidate for the Beautiful Raptor Pageant, but just because you're ugly doesn't mean you should have to go extinct.  This year they released 18 California Condors to soar high above the Grand Canyon.  Their status is now officially "Critically Endangered", which is a whole lot better than "Extinct"!

 

If you look closely at the birds above, you'll see numbers on them.  (One is 44 and the other is something else.)  We asked the guy that did the live bird presentation what the numbers were, but he didn't know.  I'm thinking that instead of names, they gave them numbers when they were hatched.  There are now 446 condors flying around in the world.

After checking out the condors, I left George talking to some people and wandered back to the other cages.  This Ornate Hawk-Eagle is from forests in Central and South America, and is "Near Threatened".

The Bald Eagle is the only eagle unique to North America.  He's "Least Concern" too.

We wandered around inside the Velma Morrison Interpretive Center, which has a lot of displays and exhibits about different kinds of raptors. The condor exhibit explained a lot about recovery and had one that obviously didn't make it hanging from the ceiling.  

 

Neither did the Peregrine Falcon below, although the species was removed from the "Endangered" list in 1999.

They have Discovery Room for kids.  These two were having a ball...never did see them learn to fly, but they did run around a lot flapping their wings.

Back behind the exhibits is a Viewing Hall where you can see more live birds.  I kept forgetting about the double-paned windows between me and them, so I'd get too close and clunk my camera--or my nose--on the glass.  The Orange-breasted Falcon is a "Near Threatened" bird from South America.  

The Eurasian Eagle-Owl is a big owl from Europe.  His scientific name is fun--he's a Bubo bubo--has something to do with sounds the male makes.  I'd call him "Bubba".  

The Northern Aplomado Falcon from the American Southwest and Mexico is the only falcon in the United States on the Endangered Species List.  He's a wee-bit scruffy.

At 2:00 we went to the Live Bird Presentation.  One of the docents was doing a show-and-tell on a couple of the birds they have in the program.  

When he was done, he took the whole group across to the other side of the parking lot to the Archives of Falconry & Library building.  There they have a lot of things relating to falconry. They have a lot of material for researchers, including the most comprehensive English-language falconry library in the world.  There is falcon art and displays with equipment the falconers use, like the leather hoods they put on the birds before they send them to hunt.  

One wing was sponsored by the son of His Royal Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan from the United Arab Emirates, designed to show how Arabian falconry is practiced by nomadic Bedouins today.  There's an exhibit of a Bedouin tent, complete with furniture and rugs.  Home with all the creature comforts, transported on a camel, it looks like the Arabian version of RVing.

In this case, it's not the falcons that are endangered--it's their prey.  The chief quarry of the Arabian falconers is the Houbara Bustard, which is endangered in some locations, but doing well in others.  Sheikh Zayed set up an extensive captive breeding program for them.

I think the Archives are a great idea, and probably more interesting to falconers.  Good plan to save the stuff before it all disappears.

Back outside, I'd hoped there was going to be a demonstration of one of the raptors in flight, but we were a week early for the Fall Flights. Maybe another time when we're in Boise.  

More pictures here:  Birds of Prey Center

9/13/17 - Hells Canyon Scenic Byway

10/16/17 - Another September jaunt.  

Hells Canyon Oregon Scenic Byway is a 200-mile loop in the northeast corner of Oregon, going past America's deepest river gorge, Hells Canyon, and the Wallowa Mountains, nicknamed "Little Switzerland".  

We didn't drive the whole loop, just the southern portion from Baker City to Hells Canyon Dam, then came back the same road. That's still almost the same distance without making the circle. It would have taken longer because we'd have to stop and look.  One day we'll come from the other direction.

The smoke from the Eagle Creek Fire near Portland was visible at the RV park, less so as we headed into the mountains.  We've been in smoke since mid-July and I'm trying to figure out how far south we'll have to go to get out of it.

We followed the Powder River, a twisty little stream that hardly seems to fit the name "river".  We stopped at the site of the 1984 Hole-in-the-Wall Landslide, where millions of tons of rock slid down, dammed the river and buried a portion of Highway 86.

North of Halfway (that's a town, not a part of speech) we took the fork to Copperfield, crossing the Snake River into Idaho, then stopped at Hells Canyon Park for lunch.  

Although the road to the dam is a Forest Service road, it's paved, which is the only reason I could talk George into doing it.  It winds along the river through the canyon below the dam.  (Or is that above the dam?  I get confused trying to figure out which way the river runs...north is downstream but that just doesn't seem right.)

 

The Snake River originates in Yellowstone National Park, winds through southern Idaho, then turns north to form the boundary between Idaho and Oregon, and finally joins the Columbia at Pasco, Washington.  The Snake is designated a "Wild and Scenic River", and although the stretch we were driving along is beautiful, it's not wild, and apparently not as scenic as it gets. 

About 67 miles of the Snake River from Hells Canyon Dam downstream are designated Wild and Scenic.  The first 30 are "wild" and the next 36 are "scenic".  The rest of the river to the Oregon-Washington border is designated "study river".  Weird...

We crossed the dam back into Oregon. View upstream:

Dam:

Downstream from the top of the dam:

We stopped at the Hells Canyon Creek Visitor Center.  I don't think the river builds up to "wild" until it gets around the bend...but if you look closely, there's a tiny bit of white water.  Next time I want to plan ahead a little and take a boat trip--the jet boat kind, not the raft kind.  We won't be here in the summer, so although I don't mind getting wet, I don't want to get cold and wet!  

Heading back west, the sun and the smoke made contrasts of the hills.

And I still want to see the Wallowas--they're one of  the 7 Wonders of Oregon. 

More pictures?  Click here:  Hells Canyon Oregon Scenic Byway