Trip Report - Pony Express Trail

My youngest son has an interest in ghost towns, so we went to check out Gold Hill, UT this weekend. If you want to see a cool, uninhabited ghost town with old buildings.... Don't go to Ghost Hill. There's a new gold mine nearby, so all of the houses in town are now occupied. Don't get me wrong, it's still small (only a dirt road through town) but there are people. Everywhere. And only two "abandoned" buildings. That having been said, this was the first "offroad" and back road trip for the Taco and we were all very impressed!

The trip started when I picked up my oldest, just north of Salt Lake. We headed to Wendover on I-90, stopping at a rest area just outside of Wendover to check out the sale lake. Pretty cool!


As an aside... Is it typical to see mileage around 17.5 or 17.8 when driving 80 MPH? Previous owner swore he got 20 mpg on the highway. I did have a strong headwind, but still...

We stopped off the side of the road for a quick lunch, surrounded by acres of "Indian Paint Brush"


After lunch we headed on to Gold Hill. We didn't even bother taking photos in Gold Hill, but we did visit this abandoned mine to the south of town. We have discovered the joy of seeing a side spur, and just driving it!


Later, to the north of Gold Hill, we took another side spur and found ourselves on top of a nice hill, overlooking the vast West Desert.


We followed the old Pony Express trail the rest of the way home and had a fantastic time munching on snacks, chatting, and enjoying the wilds of Utah. Some places in our great state are simply so ugly that they're beautiful.

 

Thanks for posting this. Took a little trip across your state once by way of the CPRG. Takes me back.

 

Your fuel economy is much better than many people get. 80 mph is a fuel burner, even without a head wind.

 

Family and I are headed to Utah for a vacation. Going to visit SLC,Moab,Canyonlands, and Arches. I am adding this to the list side trips. Thanks for the pictures.

 

Well, I’ll tell you what....

I just returned from an attempt at running the entire Pony Express Trail from Salt Lake City to Lake Tahoe. There may be better map planners out there than I am, but the trail is not as intact as it appears on Gaia, Google, or the NPS website.

The first 280 miles of the Pony Express Trail from Five Mile Pass to Nevada Hwy 278 were exactly like I dreamed. Antelope wild horses, and the ghosts of riders and raiders all along the path.

West of Hwy 278, the land became more private, gated, fenced, and farmed. The trail ran into dead ends and I had to backtrack over and over. US Hwy 50 became my default route as I moved west and repeatedly pushed north, attempting to regain the trail.

The last open stretch of trail led past Buggs Station east of Austin.

So much of the ‘trail’ had to be paralleled on Hwy 50 that by midmorning on Day 3 I found myself on the shores of Lake Tahoe.

The travel days were long. I was up, packed, and on the trail before 6am, and drove until about an hour before sunset. Breakfast was 2 oranges and 2 tortillas in the driver’s seat. Lunch was an apple and 2 peanut butter sandwiches on the tailgate. Dinner was canned stew or pasta. Boring, simple, and no dishes.

If you want a good one-nighter with the family, you could leave midmorning from here and camp around Fish Springs or Ibapah, then come home the same way, or through Wendover.

A relaxing two-nighter would be to leave the aforementioned camp, continuing west on the Pony Express Trail to Hwy 278, then turn south. Visit the towns of Eureka and Ely heading east on Hwy 50, camp in the desert north of Delta, UT, and come home via Hwy 6, or any of the dirt tracks in the area. (Don’t miss seeing the site of he Topaz Mountain Japanese Internment Camp. There are no structures left, but the streets and foundations are there. It’s a dark, but important part of our history that should be remembered.)