I often forget how close we live to the Great Salt Lake. We live just a few miles from it's shores, yet we never notice it. My mom and I picked a morning a few weeks ago and took the girls over to the edge of the lake. We went out to Layton and visited The Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve. It is a nature preserve on the banks of the Great Salt Lake where over 250 species of birds (between 4 million and 6 million total birds) migrate to and spend their summer there each year.
The preserve covers a space of almost 11 miles. There is a boardwalk to travel along that winds through it. I don't know how far the boardwalk will actually take you, but we spent about an hour there wandering around.
Sadly, we never did spot any birds. 4-6 million birds and we didn't see a single one!? That grass is pretty tall and thick. And apparently the best time to visit is in April and October. We went in September, so maybe just a little bit prematurely. We didn't see any birds (we did hear a few) but we did come across a fuzzy black and yellow caterpillar. He crawled down in between the boards before I could get a picture of him. He piqued the girls curiosity, so we stopped to watch him for a few minutes.
It is amazing how close to urban life this preserve is, yet you can stand in the middle of it and feel like you're in a whole different world. It is it's own kind of beautiful.
In the middle of the preserve is a 30 ft. look out tower. We climbed to the top and the girls ran around looking out from all the angles. Still no birds. Darn it. But the view was pretty awesome.
I tried to get a nice shot of the two of them in front of the tall grass. No such luck. When you're little you just have to be silly. It seems to be a requirement. Even if Mom wants one good picture. Just one. Oh well.
We may not have caught sight of any birds, but we enjoyed our walk outside in nature. It was good just to get out and roam. We'll have to try again in April and maybe we'll have some better luck.
I love finding little treasures of nature in the city. How fun. Beautiful pictures, too! I love the one of the girls walking away from you on the boardwalk.
ReplyDeleteWe've been there too! We went in July and it was terribly hot and no bird either. But it was pretty cool and we were the only ones there. That was fun.
ReplyDeleteHow fun! That tower is super cool. One of things I appreciate most about where we live is being so close to the outdoors and nature. Utah is much like that too. It's just a little more amazing considering how many people live there!
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