Had the alarm set for 6:30, had breakfast, saddled and booted up and on the trail by 8:30. Beautiful cool morning, but no breeze yet, we're hoped we would get one before the heat of the day. Set out counterclockwise on the White Rock Loop, had a lovely canter across a long open field, stopping for a few minutes at the other side under a lone tree with a hitching post next to it. We took a side trip out to Elephant Head Trail, which took us out to a high point on the west side of the island, with grandiose views of the entire Salt Lake from north to south. Trails were sandy and rocky combined, so we were glad we had the boots on. After admiring the beautiful west side view, we headed back down, stopped again under the tree, had lunch, fed and watered the horses, then continued on the rest of the loop. Only saw a few antelopes, though we had our eyes peeled for buffalo, no luck yet. This trail crossed to the east side of the island, with another view of the smaller part of the lake, and the towns and cities on the other side. Got back about 1:00, a boring ride with spectacular views, boring because you could see the trail for miles ahead. Of course, the point was to experience every type of terrain with our horses, and we missed the grasslands on our way west, so this arid little island will do nicely. We relaxed in the afternoon, even took a little siesta, because we had decided to take a second, short ride this evening to watch the sun set over the Great Salt Lake. We saddled up around 8:00, arrived at the perfect spot for sunset viewing at about 8:50, awaiting the scheduled 9:00 sunset. It was beautiful. Blue sky with just enough clouds in the west to make it absolutely gorgeous. There's just something about a sunset over water that just floats my boat. Growing up with a cottage near Lake Ontario, I used to walk several miles every night after dinner just to watch the sun set over the lake. It was the first time ever that we rode the horses two times in one day, and I think they were a bit confused, but seemed to take it in stride. They'll likely have a few days off to recover anyway, as our trip tomorrow to Idaho is short, and we need to find more hay and a laundromat in the next few days. We should be able to ride again Friday if all goes well. A great day! Particularly as it washed away the memory of that last awful place!
