Day 5: Learning about the Donner Party and Antelope Island

The Donner-Reed Party and Antelope Island aren't themselves related, but we learned about both on our last full day of vacation. Although it took us out of our way, we did retrace our steps back to Emigration Canyon to eat lunch at Ruth's Diner, the (second?) oldest restaurant in the Salt Lake Valley. Ruth (1895-1989) sounds like quite the character, having been a burlesque performer in her late teens-20s, then running a hamburger joint downtown for two decades before moving an old trolley car out of the city to set up as a diner. She lived in the back part with her chihuahuas, Lucky Strikes, and a contempt for government regulation. Anyway, Dear Husband wanted to say that he had eaten at Donner Pass--but actually that's west of here, in the Sierra Nevada mountains. (More on that in a moment.) The hot biscuits they bring to your table are aMAZing, even the day after; the rest of the food was just okay.

Left: Most of the sportspeople we passed in our Jeep were on bicycles, and then there was this woman practicing for cross-country skiing with roller skis

While waiting/eating, we learned that the Donner-Reed party leaves Springfield, IL, on April 15, 1846. They used the Oregon Trail, but rather than go through Idaho on their way to California, they follow a guy's advice to cut off 250 miles by taking a "short cut" through Utah and Nevada. (Mind you, said dude had never actually traveled the short-cut that now bears his name, and he went on with another group.) The Donner-Reed party hacks their way through the brush and trees to get into what is now called Emigration Canyon. Fed up, they push their oxen to haul all 23 of their wagons up some ridiculous large hills/small mountains. (I think this is when Reed stabs another man to death and is exiled from the group on horseback.) The oxen are then too exhausted to slog through the salt flats, and lot die or run off. Chasing the cattle slows down their progress even more. Party leaders leaves an older single man behind because he can't walk  and weighs too much to put in a wagon. Eventually they straggle into Reno, rest for a couple of days, before heading over the Sierra Nevada mountains at the end of October. They don't make it because of an early snow storm. Some of the people who starve or freeze to death at Donner Pass are cannibalized by the living. In the middle of December, a group leaves on snowshoes to try to get help; many of them also die (and are eaten). Reed does make it to California and sends a rescue party that, however, doesn't reach the survivors until the middle of February 1847. Another rescue group shows up 1 March. The last straggler isn't rescued until April 1847, more than 1 year after they had set off. A few months later, in July 1847, Brigham Young's Mormon band is able to use the partially-cut path down Emigration Canyon. It only takes them four more hours of work to clear the rest. They are able to plant enough crops to survive the first winter, without starvation or cannibalism, and "the miracle of the gulls" helps them with the second harvest (see Day 1).

After lunch we had several quiet hours at home base before Clayton picked us up for our sunset tour of Antelope Island, the largest of several islands in the Great Salt Lake, which is the largest salt lake in the Western hemisphere (35 miles x 75 miles!) and 7-8x as salty as the ocean (~21%). The Dead Sea is smaller (9 miles x 30 miles) and saltier (34%).

Clayton told us about Freeman Island, which John Freeman originally called Disappointment Island for the lack of food or other resources, but that only lasted for the first round of maps in the 1840s. Brigham Young tried to use it as a sort of natural prison for a guy who had robbed over 300 graves...but the dude just swam off and walked away. (I don't think we know if/how long he survived after that.)

We saw shore birds, burrowing owls, prong horned antelope, a great horned owl on the Fielding Garr Ranch, and of course a lot of bison. The bison were brought in the 1890s to be hunted; they are now protected. The bachelor males keep to smaller groups, while the females and young make larger herds. We also saw people getting out of their car to take photos of the bison who had stopped in the crosswalk like a crossing guard and wondered whether they were testing the prediction that 50% of the time an agitated bison will charge, and 50% of the time they flee.

The longest settlement on the island was at Fielding Garr Ranch, where they raised cattle, then sheep, then cattle. Clayton showed us the spring house, which is 50 degrees year round, and how the original farmhouse was built with adobe bricks and then added onto over the years. The little museum there was closed, but there's a beautiful tree-shaded picnic area, and it looks like they offer horseback riding. 

The only other long-term settlement on the island was a couple in which the man was a sailor and the woman had tuberculosis; she died after 7 years and is the only person buried on the island. He went back to Salt Lake City. You can RV, tent, or cabin camp on Antelope Island now--we saw some Scouts while we were there--and the star-gazing is top notch.

 

We got plenty of good pictures, and the hike up to Buffalo Point was easy enough. We reminded ourselves about igneous vs sedimentary vs metamorphic rocks, and we smelled sage and wild parsley (above left), which smelled like celery to me. The soundtrack was the chirping song of yellow-breasted meadowlarks, which reminded me of Germany. Clayton says they don't have meadowlarks in Europe, but maybe I remember hearing blackbirds? 

Great views at sunset! The color got even better after we were heading off the island, as the last rays of the sun peaked under the layer of clouds that had obscured most of the setting sun.

Yesterday we practiced ice skating and eating on Day 4. Day 5 ends our Spring Break Trip to Salt Lake City and Park City.

Day 4: The Ice Skating and Eating Events

Thursday I had planned to be our "down day," without significant driving. The original plan was to have a quiet morning, then visit the Wheeler Historic Farm because it was a) free, b) close, and c) covered pioneer history. When I learned of an ice skating rink at Millcreek Common within walking distance and featuring Dear Husband's favorite--a pizza place--I decided we would do that instead.

It was a beautiful spring day, sunny and temps >60. We played a game of Memory while waiting for pizza, which I was so hungry to eat that I didn't snap a photo. Afterwards, we picked up our rental skates and hit the ice. Not literally--there was only one fall, and it was onto a padded surface. We skated a handful of times at the University of Illinois hockey rink but somehow have not managed to put on skates in the decade since we moved to Pittsburgh.

The experience reminded me of nothing so much as the time on our anniversary trip to Milwaukee that we rollerbladed on the shore of Lake Michigan, a trip so old that I wasn't blogging at the time. This time we shared the looping track with half a dozen other skaters of various ages and abilities. With the pop songs blaring and the sun shining, it was a great day to move our bodies, develop blisters on our ankles, and get sunburned on our faces (eep!). I packed sunscreen for tomorrow's wildlife adventure. Guess I should have applied some today.

After another couple of hours of down time "back at the ranch," we got dolled up for a fancy dinner at Monte, a restaurant that is rumored to be angling for a Michelin star. (However, the Utah chef who has been a James Beard finalist for three years running is Nick Zocco of Urban Hill.) The experience was sold to us as a chef's table*--it would have been our fourth--but in actuality it was a pre fixe menu. Online reviews are mixed, so we were a little concerned to be the only customers on a Thursday if it really were a simultaneous seating event (another couple came in 45 minutes later).

Drinks: rose lemonade (from a bottle, but the best lemonade DH says he's ever had) and a glass of brut to celebrate my book dropping in just five days.

Left: the best thing DH has ever eaten made out of beets (which he doesn't usually like) and a light green puree with trout roe that made me exclaim out loud. Right: so much bread (breadsticks, sourdough, brioche). We couldn't eat all of the bread, so we packaged it up for breakfast and lunch the next day. The brioche was realllly good, especially with some house-made butter.

Left: a sort of French onion soup I didn't finish because I didn't think the onions were caramelized enough; however, DH prefers his onions less cooked and liked it. Right: quail ravioli in a sauce that didn't have enough salt, but was balanced if eaten with the pasta.

Left: a two-bite squid ink beignet with rabbit in the center (you just eat the round ball with the leaf on it, not the rest of the charred wood!). Right: a really excellent 3 ounces of beef with two sauces. The last chef's table we did (for Valentine's Day) had portions that were too large. These were just right.

* Looking back at the website, it's described as "chef-driven" and "changing with the seasons," as if those were unique qualities that no other fining establishment had thought of. So while we never talked to chef Martin Babio, our server did tell us about each of the seven courses.

Left is the palate cleanser that was the best tasting "green" we've had (mint, lime, cucumber, and some other things). Between that the dessert--the silkiest chocolate tart imaginable--the dinner was worth it. Staff are attentive but let you enjoy the meal. The setting is industrial with a side of woodsman-naturalist. The music was loud but fun. My only real critique is that the restaurant is located in a distillery, so when we arrived via Google Maps, we thought we were at the wrong building, and I had to double-check the address. Otherwise, 5 stars, would do again for a fancy occasion.

After all that, we scrambled back in the car and headed up to Temple Square to catch the last hour of the Mormon Tabernacle choir rehearsal, which is free and open to the public. That was a lovely way to end the day.

Did you miss our mountain adventure on Day 3? Up next: how much do you know about the Donner Party?

Day 3: Coming Down the Mountain and Natural History Museum

Overnight the temperatures in the mountains plummeted. Anticipating this, I had left the wall thermostat on 72 when we went to bed--figuring the furnace would have to work overtime to counter the 22-degree low we were anticipating--but in the morning, I don't know if the AirBnB was even 60 degrees inside (since Dear Husband had to get completely dressed AND put on all his outdoor gear to feel warm). Apparently, our host had re-set the temp on his app, which we found out when I messaged him that we were so miserable we would be leaving early. He helped us set up a couple of space heaters that made the loft bearable for the morning.

Above, the view from the balcony, complete with our Jeep. Left, view of the barn-garage loft. We had some time before lunch, so we decided to head back to Park City to see the Park City Museum. For fun, we put Robert Picardo's Star Trek Voyager Doctor on Waze. This turned out to be a mistake, because he directed us up and over Silver Summit instead of down the roads that we knew were clear of snow. Actually, the ice turned out to be worse, and we got stuck. On a one-way dirt road. With a drop-off to our left. Using the ice scraper like a shovel and some dried brush for traction, we did eventually manage to get unstuck, turned around, and back to drivable roads. The aggravating part is that I had asked our host about this route before we came, and he had never answered my question. At that point we scrapped the museum and made the 45-minute drive to Emigration Canyon, pulling over to take the selfie above at the Little Dell Reservoir. Destination: the iconic Ruth's Diner, on our way through Donner Pass. Alas, that was not to be either, because they are closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays! So we regrouped and headed for the aptly named Emigration Cafe, where we enjoyed juicy, messy "handhelds" (burger for him, breakfast sandwich for me) and hot drinks (decaf mocha for him, golden chai for me). Then it was on to our final destination: the Natural History Museum of Utah, since we thought it was too early to visit the Red Butte Garden & Arboretum.

I really like the asymmetric, naturalistic architecture of the building. Above, entrance to the ticketing desk; below, the "Canyon" lobby. There are four floors of exhibits, and we managed to cover the two with the the larger half of the content.

We started by ogling the minerals and gems, because how could you not? Most are raw chunks of crystal in varying shapes and shades, but these pieces have been turned into art. Then it was on to their temporary exhibit, "Bug World," which we shared with some schoolchildren on a field trip. If it looks expensive and highly (overly?) designed, that may be because the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa commissioned it from Wētā Workshop, the five-time Academy Award-winning special effects masters behind the The Lord of the Rings movies and the Avatar franchise. 

We learned about camouflage and how the nanostructure of iridescent blue butterfly wings has inspired currency designs that can't be forged (above right). Orchid mantises look like flowers and then eat other, unsuspecting insects (I bought the commemorative socks). We learned about how dragonflies (older than dinosaurs!) catch their prey, and how Japanese honeybees beat their wings to create a ball of heat around a hornet that has invaded their nest. The lower left image is of a complicated sculpture of a jewel wasp injecting venom--here represented by a moving blue light--into the brain of a cockroach, which she will then lead to her nest to serve as food for her offspring (singular!--they must do this repeatedly for every egg they lay). Finally, the lower right image is of the Schmidt Sting Pain Index. Justin Schmidt has let 83 Hymenoptera sting him and then rated the pain. For instance, honeybee and bald-faced hornet stings are a 2: "similar to getting your hand mashed in a revolving door," while a tarantula hawk sting is "blinding, fierce, shockingly electric. A running hair dryer has been dropped into your bubble bath."

Next we appreciated the craftsmanship of Utah's First Peoples knapping arrowheads; weaving textiles, baskets, and sandals (above); coiling and decorating clay pots; making a variety of beaded jewelry; and growing corn and keeping turkeys. 

Then we wandered through the Great Salt Lake exhibit. 30,000 years ago, Lake Bonneville covered 20,000 square miles and was 1,000 feet deep in places. Under a colder, drier climate, it shrank to a relatively consistent size 13,000 years ago. Its high point in recorded history was an unwieldy 8,500 sq. kilometers in 1985, but it has shrunk rapidly to 1,600 sq. miles and a maximum depth of just 33 feet. The cause is not climate change but diversion for irrigation, which threatens the migrating birds who stop here to fuel up on brine shrimp. The salt has many uses, but not for human consumption.

Finally, we sped through prehistory with dinosaur walkway and the controversy over the Cleveland-Lloyd Quarry, where hundreds of juvenile carnivore skeletons were found, but why?

After a rest at home, we finished with dinner at Cosmica, which The New York Times rated a top-100 restaurant in 2025. Our original plan--to drive back up to the mountains and snowshoe to a yurt for dinner--was canceled because they had too few reservations. :-(

Did you miss our bobsled ride on Day 2? Looking ahead to ice skating and a chef's table on Day 4?