Antelope Island State Park

Last updated on December 21, 2025.

Antelope Island State Park is the perfect way to experience the Great Salt Lake, with fantastic scenery and abundant wildlife that many wouldn’t expect to see in such a salty place. It’s located near Salt Lake City.

History of Antelope Island State Park

With an area of 42 square miles (109 square kilometers), Antelope Island is the largest of 10 islands in the Great Salt Lake — a remnant of Lake Bonneville, an inland Pleistocene lake that was larger and deeper than Lake Michigan. It’s 15 miles (24 kilometers) long and 4 ½ miles (7.2 kilometers) at its widest point.

The first non-natives known to have visited were John C. Frémont (1813–1890) and Kit Carson (1809–1868) in 1845. After shooting a pronghorn antelope for its meat, they gave the island its name. Mormon settlers began ranching on the island in 1848. John Dooley Sr. purchased the entire island in 1870, and his Island Improvement Company managed the ranches from 1884 to 1981.

Early in the 20th century, advocates suggested Antelope Island become a national park. Senator Frank Moss (1911–2003) made another push in 1959, but it never came to fruition. Steps toward preservation began when Utah purchased 2,000 acres on the northern half of the island in 1969. They in turn established Great Salt Lake State Park. It became Antelope Island State Park after they acquired the rest of the island in 1981 and removed all the sheep and cattle.

Planning Your Trip to Antelope Island State Park

Only a short drive from Salt Lake City, you can enjoy more than 45 miles of trails, camping, and beaches on the Great Salt Lake as well as visit a historic ranch. There are also plenty of opportunities for birdwatching and spotting wildlife, including pronghorn antelope, bison, bighorn sheep, badgers, coyotes, mule deer, bobcats, and porcupines. The bison herd is one of the oldest and largest in the country.

Before getting into some of the trails and highlights of the park, here’s some essential information to help you plan your trip. Check the official website for more info:

Entrance Fees to Antelope Island State Park

Antelope Island is accessible via a 7-mile causeway from the city of Syracuse. You’ll pay the entrance fee at the tollbooth at the beginning of the causeway. Prices are current as of December 2025:

• $15 per vehicle up to 8 people
• $10 per vehicle for seniors age 65+
• $5 per motorcycles
• $3 per person for bikes and pedestrians. 

The park is open daily.

Visitor Center at Antelope Island State Park

The visitor center is open daily from 10am to 4pm. It has interesting displays on the wildlife and history of the lake as well as a short film. The film was overly dramatic and turned us off a bit. Outside of the building are a few sculptures. (Note: the visitor center is currently closed for renovation (as of December 2025). When complete, it will feature an expanded learning center as well as a 3D theatre.)

Camping at Antelope Island State Park

If you plan on camping, reservations are highly recommended. There are four developed campgrounds and one backcountry campground. Prices are current as of December 2025:

• Bridger Bay has 64 sites at $20 per night for no hookups or $30 for water and electrical hookups.
• White Rock Bay has 20 sites at $42 per night covering two vehicles.
• Ladyfinger has 5 sites at $20 per night.
• Lakeside Group Campsite is $180 per night for up to 80 people and 20 vehicles.
• The backcountry campground is Split Rock Bay, which has 4 sites by reservation only for $20 per night. It’s a five-mile hike to this primitive site.

All campgrounds have vault toilets except Bridger Bay, which has flush toilets and showers.

Activities at Antelope Island State Park

Hiking, horseback riding, biking, a public beach, and boating are some of the activities available at the park. Rhodes Valley Outfitters offers guided tours on horseback. Island Buffalo Grill is a restaurant at Bridger Bay Beach, open seasonally from March 1 to November 1.

Lady Finger Point

The Lady Finger Point is just past the small marina on the north end of the island. An easy ¼-mile (400 meter) one-way trail leads to great views of the lake, Egg Island, and Bridger Bay.

Bridger Bay

After the turn to the visitor center, you can stop at Bridger Bay to dip your feet in the Great Salt Lake. From the parking lot, we walked down a soft sandy beach, and then had to walk quite a long way on a harder surface to the water’s edge.

The water was comfortable but the smell was horrible — probably due to the hundreds of birds wading nearby. The Great Salt Lake is too salty to support fish, but brine shrimp thrive in the waters. They support several different species of migrating birds.

Buffalo Point

At Buffalo Point, you’ll enjoy spectacular views of both Bridger Bay and White Rock Bay. There’s also a short but steep ½-mile (800 meter) one-way trail.

East Side Road

East Side Road leads from the causeway down to the Fielding Garr Ranch along the east side of Antelope Island. There are a couple unmarked pullouts along the way.

Unmarked Pullout #1

The first unmarked pullout is on the northeast corner of the island. It overlooks Farmington Bay and you can see the Wasatch Mountains in the distance. You might even spot some of the bison that live on the island.

Unmarked Pullout #2

Another pullout is a short drive further south, with more views of Farmington Bay and the Wasatch Mountains. There’s also an interpretive panel explaining how the Great Salt Lake Valley was an unwanted land until Brigham Young (1801–1877) decided to settle there with the first Mormon pioneers in 1846. Mountaineer Jim Bridger (1804–1881) wagered Young would never grow a bushel of corn, while Mormon leader Sam Brannan (1819–1889) believed Young was making a terrible mistake and urged him to settle in California. Today, the Great Salt Lake Valley is a rapidly growing area with a high quality of life.

Bison at Antelope Island State Park

While on the scenic drive to the southern half of the island, we were surprised by a herd of bison crossing the road. It was incredible how the adult bison blocked the road and waited for the calves to cross first.

Biologists estimate over 60 million bison once roamed freely from coast to coast and were an important resource for Native Americans. By the 1890s, however, the American bison was nearly extinct in North America, having suffered from years of overhunting and government-sponsored extermination during the settlement of the West.

In 1893, John Dooley, with the help of William Glassman, brought a small herd of 12 bison to Antelope Island. Only about 800 remained at the time. He had hoped to attract tourists and boost his income with private bison hunts. The hunts began in 1896 and ended in 1926, when activists began to call for the herd’s protection. The herd remained privately owned until the park’s creation in 1969 and have since thrived.

Today, the herd fluctuates between 550 and 700 annually, and is one of the largest publicly owned herds in the nation. When the numbers reach 700, excess bison are culled and sent to other herd locations or sold for meat or breeding stock at commercial farms.

Fielding Garr Ranch

The Fielding Garr Ranch, which is the oldest remaining Anglo settlement in Utah, is on the southeast side of the island. The story of the ranch is just as interesting as the island’s nature.

The ranch was built in 1848 by the LDS Church for their herds of sheep and cattle. Fielding Garr, a War of 1812 veteran born in 1794 in Culpepper, Virginia, joined the LDS Church in 1842 and made the journey to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. The church sent him to Antelope Island to manage the ranch.

In 1870, John Dooley purchased the entire island including the ranch. He set up the Island Improvement Company, which managed ranching on the island until 1981. It was once one of the largest sheep ranches in the country, with a population of 10,000 sheep.

Mercantile Building

The ranch has a few buildings open to visitors and lots of antique farming equipment on display. You can examine some of this equipment at the mercantile building, where you can also learn about the sheep ranching business.

Barn and Blacksmith’s Workshop

Next, you can pass through the large barn followed by the blacksmith’s workshop. In the barn, you’ll see stalls on the upper level, while the blacksmith’s workshop features original tools.

Ranch House

The adobe ranch house, filled with authentic furniture and decorations, is the oldest building in Utah that still remains on its original foundation. It was built in 1848 and inhabited until 1981.

The rooms where the ranch hands lived are much simpler and seem a bit less comfortable.

Map of Antelope Island State Park