Antelope Island

As skiing is not a great option for us (me) right now, we rented a car and drove about 40min north to Antelope Island - an island in the gigantic salt lake with salinities for 4-28%, that's up to 10 times saltier than the ocean!
It was cold and windy, but the clouds made the vista so much more beautiful:

And yes, Silvan was cold during our first hike, and my hating pants during pregnancy didn't really help either:

And a family portrait (it's good to bring friends along on road trips ;) )

And then the buffalos. On the island lives a herd of about 500 free-roaming buffalos. They are huge and fast (we saw some running) - even uphill! They can jump over a 2m fence if they want to, can stampede if scared, and are so well insulated that snow can accumulate on their backs.

Later, the sun came out longer, and we walked through the prairie grass - the wind rustling in it, and birds chirping, the sound was fantastic. We wondered why Silvan took his jacket off, but we realized, when lying in the grass, that the wind was very weak in the grass and it was actually pretty warm.

Next, we stumbled across the historic Fielding Garr Ranch. No guide had mentioned it, but it was such a neat and cool place with a self guided tour of the historic buildings and stables. In the summer one can book horse back riding tours. Silvan played cowboy "Guck Mama, ich bin ein Cowboy - ich lese ein Buch!" (Look, mama, I'm a cowboy, I read a book".

Finally, we had to have a closer look at the lake - we saw a coyote and two antelopes on the way there. The mountains in the distance become clearer.

The water level was quite low. We saw antelope tracks, buffalo poops, coyote tracks, and Salt Lake City in the distance:

We all got pretty hungry from exploring the island in the cold air. So we enjoyed a nice Himalayan dinner back in the city near the gigantic Mormon complex. 50% of the population of Salt Lake City are Mormon (90% in Provo, where the Mormon University is). The buildings were very impressive, but we didn't bring a camera along when we visited. What was also quite nice is that most Mormon's are vegetarians (and non-drinkers, and non-coffee drinkers) so there were a lot of vegetable options and non-alcoholic drink options amongst the typical Western Meat cuisine.