The Great Salt Lake Nature Center: Winter

 

I have been wanting to get out and do more adventuring during the winter time because I hate winter and usually hole up until it passes. That and the fact that we had a small storm last night that cleared out all of the haze made it perfect to go out.

We have been here before, hoping to see bald eagles, but I think we came too late in the year last time. Also, dogs are allowed September 16th – February 29th so we could bring Roxy with us.

It is pretty easy to get here, take i15 toward Farmington. Take exit 322. Take the first right and follow it around the curve to the frontage rd. Turn right onto Glovers ln. Drive 1.6 miles to 1325 w, and there is the small parking lot on the left before the gate. If the visitor center is open the gate will be as well and you can drive right up to it. If not, you can park here and still hike around by going through the access opening.

Which is just left of these signs that tell you everything I just did. The visitor center in usually 8-4:30 mon – fri and sometimes sat and sun. You can see additional hours on their website. Now, onto today's adventure!

The first thing I noticed is that the road was plowed so we didn’t have to trek through snow.

And here is the Visitor Center which has recently been renamed to The Robert N. Hasenyager Great Salt Lake Nature Center. Whew that is a mouthful. it was a short trek in. Like last time, it was closed, but it does have a nice deck with sitting areas that offer a nice view.

The Wasatch Mountains.

Antelope Island. Also a fun adventure.

Last time we were here there were quite a few nests on these poles. Nothing this time. Might be too early.

There are a few roads you can drive through around the dikes and ponds that offer better bird watching, but I wasn’t going to risk it today. (Little car, dirt roads, icy)

Well… we saw a bird today!

There are a few little representations of birds you might see hanging on the buildings.

We originally planned on walking some of the trails they have but Roxy was already acting cold so we decided not to make her tromp through the snow. Sigh, no eagles again.

Nice view of the mountains.

Another pretty mountain shot.

As we were heading back, my eyes were drawn to the tree covered in small birds.. and then I noticed something else.

Well hello there, we found a bald eagle!

Even with a 300mm lens it is still a bit far away.

Here is a cropped image. Beautiful bird.

I wonder if the smaller birds know it is there.

After watching for a while, and hoping it would fly we decided to take the dike road to see if we could get closer.

Meh, not much closer.

Another crop.

Well I came here for the bald eagles and I saw one! I am a little concerned he didn’t move much the entire 15 or so minutes we watched, I hope he doesn’t have the Avian Flu that has been killing the eagles off recently, but I don’t know a lot about them. As far as I know he was just looking for lunch, and am just worried because of the news hype of the deaths. Anyway, success! What a fun little adventure!

Not going to give it a squirrely rating today, we didn’t do much, but I will say I think this is a great family friendly, easy to do winter adventure. We saw fewer birds this year than last time, but we did finally see an eagle this year. I would recommend it! Oh, and if you are going this time of year, I would recommend a truck to adventure further out into the bays. Those dike roads are a little intimidating in a little sedan.

As for difficulty, for what we did definitely a DR2. Some of the dirt trails I would even rate DR2 (without snow anyway) and others maybe a DR3, and even some DR1 if you drive around the dike roads.