A lone bison walking across the Great Salt Lake bed immediately caught my attention at Antelope Island State Park in Utah. The scene was wide, quiet, and sobering. It showed how much drought can change a place.
Bison on the Great Salt Lake Bed at Antelope Island
Antelope Island sits in the southern arm of the Great Salt Lake, connected to the mainland by a causeway. The island is home to one of the largest publicly owned bison herds in the country, a herd that has roamed the island since the 1890s.
On this visit, I found a lone bison out on the exposed lakebed, well beyond where water should have been. The animal moved slowly across the cracked, pale earth, completely at home in a landscape that looked more like a desert than a lake margin.
The contrast was hard to ignore. A massive, shaggy animal built for the American plains, walking across what used to be the bottom of a lake.
What the Dry Lakebed Says About Utah’s Drought
By the summer of 2022, the Great Salt Lake had dropped to its lowest recorded level. Years of drought, combined with heavy water diversion for agriculture and municipalities, had shrunk the lake dramatically. Large sections of the lakebed that were once underwater sat fully exposed.
That exposed ground is what I was standing on when I made this photograph. The dry, pale flat stretched out in every direction behind the bison, with no water visible anywhere in the frame.
Seeing it in person made the numbers feel real. Maps and headlines describe a shrinking lake. Standing on the former lake bottom with a bison in front of you is something else entirely.
Photographing a Bison Hand-Held on Open Flats
The lakebed offered no cover and no shade. I worked hand-held, keeping my movements slow and giving the bison plenty of space. The animal was calm and paid little attention to me.
The open flat was actually an advantage for composition. Nothing competed with the bison in the frame. The bare earth behind it did the work, showing scale and context without any distraction.
The light in early June on that open ground was bright and flat. I exposed to hold detail in the bison’s dark coat, which is always the challenge with these animals in full sun.
I came away with one frame that said everything I wanted to say about that place and that moment.