My Walkabout

“I guarantee that we will see some buffalo if we go.” 

“Yes! Antelope Island!” 

It was as easy as that. Within minutes we are driving on the causeway out to Antelope Island. The oldest child has a headache and takes a nap, but the other two are keeping their eyes peeled for buffalo.

The paved road ends, turning into a bumpy and dusty dirt road. We adventure on, and at the end of the trail, way up on the island’s hillside, we see the herd.

Turning back from whence we came, I ask if they would like to stop at the Fielding Garr Ranch. The girls want to rest in the car, but Cbug is up for it. The ranch has a rich Mormon history, being a stronghold for managing the church’s tithing funds. It was also a sheep and cattle ranching homestead until those became unprofitable.

Ranching operations ceased though when the Island became a State park in 1981. We listen to these stories from an 82 year old cowboy that has spent most of his life at Fielding Garr. He tells us that there is a book full of pictures and we can take one if we’d like.

We enter the barns and stables and fall back into Utah’s cowboy history.

There is an open area set up for kids to try their hand at a lasso. CBug grabs a rope and shows me what he’s got as the lasso is swung around over his head.

We walk into a small ranch hand room made for sleeping, an old and musty cellar, a kitchen from the early 20th century.

A trail into the woods behind the Ranch begs us to explore it. We find an old tree that has fallen. CBug climbs it and I flashback to when I was his age, doing the same thing.

Today was one of the good days.