Antelope Island - Frary Homestead

The Frary Homestead is a great short family friendly interpretive trail. It is less of a homestead and more the slight remains of one, but it is a nice stroll with some interesting stuff to see.

The remaining foundation.

Quick Details:

Length: 1/2 Mile
Difficulty: DR3 pretty easy trail
Elevation Gain: Not much, maybe 100 feet.
Restroom: No. The closest one is at the Felding Garr Ranch.
Dogs? Yes, please clean up after your furry friend.
Extra Info: Probably not the best trail to do in summer. There was no protection from the sun. Also, short jaunt along a dirt road to get to the trail head. My passenger car made it with no issues, but be aware during wet times.

Trailhead sign.

The trail, with Frary Peak.

The trail. See pretty wide and generally flat..

Starting to see the little area just ahead.

Little bird on a rock.

Looking back down. There is a little bit of water out there, but not much.

Informational sign. The Frarys lived here from 1891 – 1902 the house was reclaimed by nature. Alice passed in 1897 and her grave is on site.

Alice Frarys Grave.

Which is encased in the fence you have to weave back and forth through. I imagine to keep the animals out of it.

Looking back over the site.

Another informative sign. This one in front of what little of the foundation that remains of the home.

What remains of the home. A little bit of the foundation, and some very rusty metal objects.

Nice little mound above.

Some other metal strewn about. Apparently they only took about a trunk full with them and the rest of their belongings have been mostly reclaimed by nature. But there are a couple bits of remains.

Ceramic pieces.

More rusted metal.

Frary Peak above. I guess it is 1.5 miles west of the home. There is a trail up to it further north.

One of the signs mentioned a spring in this gully. Looks pretty dry, but I guess the spring is further up.

Looking back towards the grave site.

The remains of another building. I believe this might have been the spring house. They used the spring water to keep the building cool and act as a sort of natural refrigerator. There is spring house that is still intact at the Felding Garr Ranch down the road.

 

Heading back down to see what else we could find to explore.

Thin strip of water. What looks to be the Jordan river, combined with other streams just flowing across the dry lake bed.

You can see Salt Lake City across the way.

Well that was a fun and informative little adventure. There isn’t much left, but it is still neat to see a little bit of history and it was a new adventure for us.

There was not a whole lot to see on an open trail with a ton of sun. However it was informative, and interesting so it was a fun adventure. 7 out of 10 squirrels.

Dogs are allowed. Please clean up after your furry friend.