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I was happy to learn that the $15 daily Entrance Fee is already included in the $40 daily Camping Fee we already paid. I was a little concerned about that. At $40 a night it's already double what we budget to spend for a nightly fee.
After receiving our hang-tag style permit to display on ROVER's rear view mirror we proceeded to drive cross a 5½-mile long causeway just to reach the island. The funny thing is, it's no longer an island at all! There is not enough water in the Great Salt Lake to truly make Antelope Island an island. The southern end tends to remain dry when low water levels are present and creates land bridges over a large area. This condition has existed since the early 1980s.
The lower loop of the campground (Sites #1-26) have no hook ups, but the new upper loop (Sites #27-64) have both water and electric, which is where we are located.
With full tummies we headed up to the top of a hill where the Visitor Center is located. From that vantage point you can see 360° around the park, including the causeway leading onto Antelope Island.
Antelope Island is 17-miles long, north to south, and has a scenic drive all along most of the eastern shoreline. This is where we got a look at several large groups of bison that are located here on the island.
That's when we heard an unfamiliar sound, not the normal sound of the sunroof opening. The sunroof only opened about an inch and then came to a grinding halt. It wouldn't open any further, and worse yet, it wouldn't close either. After several more failed attempts to get the sunroof to close I got on the phone and called the nearest Ford Dealership which happens to be about 30-minutes away.
The Service Department employee who answered the phone said he could have someone take a quick look at it if I could get it there soon, it was already 3:30PM and they close at 5:00PM. I assured him I would be there before 4:00PM.
When I arrived and found the person I spoke to on the phone he immediately took ROVER into the service bay and asked me to follow him to his desk to "get the paperwork done". When he asked me for my phone number I started with (954) and he looked up and said, "That's Broward County!" I said, "How could you possibly know that?" He said, "Until COVID arrived he lived in Miami Dade's (305) area code.
Here I am in Syracuse, UT and 2500-miles from home in Coconut Creek, FL and cross paths with someone I could have dealt with if I'd have taken my Ford to a dealership in Miami. What a small world!
They weren't able to "fix" the sunroof today, parts would need to be ordered, but they were able to get the sunroof tightly closed so that when it begins to rain later tonight I won't have anything to worry about.
When we arrived back in the park it was too late to continue sightseeing, besides we were both a little bit stressed out and had already spent a long day in the truck.
We returned to THE POD and prepared for the weather changes that were coming by putting in the awnings and lowering both our antennas to just above the roof line. We're as ready as we can be for the winds to begin!
By the time we woke at 7:00AM we had already had several wind gusts over 45MPH and the temperatures have been dropping, instead of rising, since the sun came up.
At around 9:00AM we had a little break in the rain patterns and decided to go finish up our scenic drive that got cut short yesterday afternoon.
We really didn't need to leave the campground to see bison though. They were kind enough to come visit within view from our campsite.
As you can see by the weather station at the top of the photo the current wind speed at 3:19PM is 28MPH (the big blue number in the center of the display). The two smaller blue numbers above that tell me the highest windspeed in the past hour was 48MPH (left one) and the other tells me the highest windspeed in the previous 24 hours was also 48MPH (right one).
Anyway you look at it, when you couple 48MPH winds with 46°F temperatures (big orange number at top right) it makes for a pretty unpleasant day outdoors.
We spent the rest of the day inside THE POD with our space heaters running which kept the indoor temperature at an almost comfortable 62°F (little red number on bottom right).
That was until 6:33PM when the western skies looked like they were on fire. It only lasted for about three minutes, but Tricia was quick to burst outside and take several photos of the magnificent light show going on.
Come on, let's go grab it before someone else does!
I'm so glad we did that this morning or we might have left Antelope Island without ever seeing actual antelope!
The first thing we noticed after exiting THE POD and climbing into ROVER is that all of the mountains that are surrounding the island have now got snow covered peaks this morning, there wasn't any snow there yesterday!
We've only seen bull (male) bison up in the campground.
"I see you, stay right where you are if you don't want 2000 pounds of trouble.
Or, maybe it should read, "Hurry up, there's people watching us!"
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