One of our favorite state parks in Utah is only~45 minutes away from Salt Lake City! There are bison, antelope, deer, and many other animals that call this island home. On the west side of the island are extensive muds flats that give you one of the best sunset views in Utah. One of our favorite things to do on the island is hike Frary Peak which is the high point of the island. The top portion of the hike is a rocky scramble, but there are plenty of side trails to beautiful viewpoints during the hike. 

As for the best season to visit the island, we are partial to winter due to the absolute lack of bugs and stunning contrast of the bison on fresh snow. Our 2nd favorite season is early spring before the bugs come out in full swarm! I wouldn't recommend visiting in late spring or summer as there are swarms of all kinds of biting bugs and the temps can be unbearable.

Beautiful relaxing campsite. Spent the night at Bridger’s Bay this past weekend and was pretty nervous having heard bad things. There were some mosquitos but otherwise no bugs, having grown up camping in the woods of Wisconsin and Georgia the bugs here are way better than that. Campsites are well spaced out so we didn’t hear any of our neighbors, plenty of starlight, beautiful sunrise and sunset, and amazing views of the lake. We saw plenty of bison and mule deer and had a wonderful time. Would definitely recommend as long as it isn’t may/June when the bugs are especially bad

Beautiful views, if you can stand the bugs. We stayed one night in the RV campground. Dry camping. Tried to walk down the the water, when the bugs weren’t eating us alive, the smell of all the dead birds at the water was making us gag. Did drive over to the ranch area and walked around without any problems with bugs or smells. The wind was crazy that night and we could literally feel the camper rocking back and forth. Still a beautiful place to camp, and I would go back with netting to wear over my head.

Antelope Island is NOT for the faint of heart. 

To be clear there are 2 reservable campgrounds here. The first is Bridger Bay which is basically Utah's Mad Max campground. If you don't own an RV why would you even? The second is Lady Finger with 5 walk in sites. The walk is less than 2 minutes for all 5.  

In early spring you have thousands of biting flies. Some are HUGE Midges and they will bite several times- wear very tight long sleeves. Others are teeny and crawl all over your scalp and only the finest mesh hats will keep most at bay- they are very creative in getting past protective clothing. 

We camped in late July to see the Perseid Meteor Shower which I HIGHLY recommend. We stayed in site 5 which is off on it's own little trail but still close to the parking. Eeach site gets 1 reserved parking.. which may be occupied by sunset chasers so come early to stake your claim. Once inside Antelope Island Park you have until 10pm before the gates close- you can leave anytime but you can't get back inside after 10pm.

If you come late summer you WILL be accosted by thousands upon THOUSANDS of Orb Spiders. They can weave their webs overnight and they will be right across your path as you go to the bathroom- SURPRISE! They are there for the hideous flies so PLEASE leave them alone. They are not poisonous or aggressive but their webs will be all over the picnic table and on all the tall grass going to your campsite and to the bathroom. These spiders are only in LadyFinger- the RV campground is exposed to the elements and spider free. This is a dry camp but there are 2 rest stations which are cleaned out on Saturday so THANKFULLY smells are not a major issue.

I cannot recommend sky and bird watching here enough.  Skies here are open in all directions- it's amazing to see satellites pass and look west and see city lights as well. It's also nice and quiet. Campsite reservations have been easy anytime I go as it's not a very well known campsite- yet. PS- no fires allowed and if allergic you'll want to bring plenty of meds- this area has all the major allergens- mites, grass seed and Sagebrush.

Be warned!!! If you decide to hike anywhere on the island while the bugs are hatching you will need a ton of bug spray and bug nets to cover every inch of you!

We decided to do Frary Peak and were eaten by bugs for a lot of the trio especially the portion that goes to the west side of the mountain. The only thing that gave us any saving grace was the stronger winds while we traversed along the ridge at various points. Had a great view of the bison from above but will probably only visit in fall or winter from now on

Beautiful park, awesome animals. TERRIBLE FLIES. We had no idea there was little flies that could bite like a bee sting, but there was. And we couldn’t get away from them. This was a trip we left phones at home and just wanted to get away, but we flew over it on the way in. There’s so many trails here and we so many bison it was awesome to see, a mini Yellowstone with sub par “campgrounds” which made us feel like we were still in the city due to them having concrete and artificial sun shades which was necessary.

Not a destination but nice stopover. Willard Bay much nicer. It's hot and the great salt lake is not where one wants to cool off.

This place has terrible bugs! Fantastic hiking. Recommend Frary Peak hike. Tons of wildlife.

This campground was spaced out nicely and the sites were roomy. Everything for RVs was at the campground. There were a few ADA spots and I took one which had more concrete pads to maneuver on as amputee.

We loved antelope island. With one more day we could have accomplished our whole geocaching adventure.

Our start was a little rough, we were using a new tent, a very large 10 man tent to help accommodate our dogs and kids but it rained the first day with crazy winds and while we were in town shopping (it was raining after all) our fly lines pulled out and the tent partially collapsed, getting everything very wet inside. Thankfully, there was a laundromat not far away and we were able to dry everything.

We booked 3 nights at the park. The drive in is long and the bugs were really bad on the drive in but once we got past the marina, the bugs were gone. We didn't notice much for bugs the rest of the time we were there. There was a slew of other wildlife there. We saw bison regularly, we heard and saw coyotes a couple nights. We saw plenty of antelope. Our campsite was pretty good. We saw mountains in almost every direction. We had a couple spots where it was more hills then anything but beyond those were mountains. It was hazy for a lot of the time, with all the rain on the first day and cloudy for a lot of the rest of it but it did warm up a bit and hiking was comfortable. The island is covered in geocaches so we enjoyed that part of the stay for sure. Sight seeing was great too.

We were in camp site 18 in Bridger Bay. The site wasn't overly spacious. It was also very rocky. You could either get your tent stakes in to a very soft spot or you couldn't get them in at all. The restroom was a vault but it lacked a smell, was clean and well stocked. It did flood some when the heavy rains came. We were able to walk to many spots on the island. We took a trail that would have gone to the other side but we only went halfway. We didn't notice much of a smell from the water, just sort of smelled like the ocean. By the marina and the drive in it did smell though. Just not in our camp area or where we were hiking. Bison frequented the area, even came right through camp. All the picnic spots in the sites were concrete slabs. The fire ring was buried in the concrete. That was ok, the provided fire grate was hard to work and our tripod isn't designed for rings under the ground so that was a challenge too. There isn't any shade except the shade shelter. It was far away from the fire ring so make sure you bring chairs to sit around the fire.

There are pay showers available and flush toilets over at ladyfinger, where the beach is, as well as a little restaurant. Those bathrooms were heated and had running water.

Overall, I look forward to returning. Maybe when it's a tad warmer. The nights were super cold.