Pony Express Trail Southwest of SLC ?'s

[tuxxj]

I finally have a weekend off and decided its time to explore this trail. Is anybody familiar with this trail, ie routes, sights , sidetrips or cautions.

[Clint]

I finally have a weekend off and decided its time to explore this trail. Is anybody familiar with this trail, ie routes, sights , sidetrips or cautions.


The road is pretty much a graded super highway. This weekend I imagine the area will be packed with people due to the holiday. The farther west you go, the less people you'll find. Ive always wanted to ride out to the Deep Creek mountains. Fill up in Tooele and I might take a extra gas can if you plan to explore.

Most the time on that trip, you make the loop around to Wendover. That area is very pretty and the Deep Creeks are supposed to be a wonderful sight to see. I'll see if I can dig up some more info on the area for you.

[Geepfreak]

The're are some really neat mines, and old mining home(the Privvy was thill there durning the winter of 03'

If you have a full state Topo map, or some good topo's of around VERNON :D
Look for a Roab/trail

Would love to go with this weekend,

[tuxxj]

Your welcome to come along. I really rather not get out there all alone.

[DrMoab]

If you do go alone make sure you tell people exactly where you plan to be and when you plan to get back.

When we were out there two years ago we found a guy in a small car driving down the road on four flat tires. :D

[SCW]

Are you just exploring or do you want to find rocks to play around in?

If you are exploring, make sure (VERY SURE!) that you have great tires and a spare, maybe a patch kit as well. Full sized spare is required! If you want to head down to the Deep Creeks this is a great time of year. Head past Gold Hill and get over to Callao and try Red Cedar Canyon. You can't drive very far up the canyon but it's pretty nice. The next canyon down is called Granite Canyon, it's better. the enviros have been trying to shut down the road about half-way up for years so I'm not sure how far you can go, but the further you go the better it gets. Lots of trees, medow, creeks, elk, deer. Fantastic canyon.

Two canyons further south is Trout Creek Canyon, it's also very nice with a bigger creek and some fish if the kids want to catch some. South of that is Pleasant Valley. You can take the road through P.V. all the way into Nevada and then some (a lot) and see mining towns, etc. There is a popular destination (for the locals) called Blue Mass, named for the mass of waving blue wildflowers in the spring. Beautiful meadow, and the coyote hunting aint half bad neither. Lots of places to go up there, once you get into Nevada. Mostly private property on the Utah side from the road. If you watch close up there you will also see a few graves from US calvary that were killed in indian skirmishes. One jack-ass rancher used some of the stones for his mailboxes..... :(

Even further south there is a canyon called Devil's Notch or Devil's Tooth or something like that. It was a really rough road when I was there, but worth every bit. Once you get through the gap you open up into a large hidden meadow against the mountains. Again, this is the time of year to be there.

Roads out there are pretty rough. Traffic is non-existant. Cell phones don't work. It's nearly 90 miles to a gas station (Delta). Towns on a map look like towns, but for comparison Trout Creek has 3 people living there. And they are so retarded and backwater that they won't be much help anyway. Actually one of the is an old woman about 70 yrs old that (seriously) has a beard about 4 inches long. Her husband was kicked in the head by a horse and is basically an invalid.

You need to make sure you are very self-sufficient. Rock hounds and explorers get lost out there every year, and it's not a nice place to get lost. Unless you have a GPS, stay out of the Confusions mountain range (east of Trout Creek). I've hunted and explored all through them and I still get turned around. There is a reason they are called the Confusions.

[DrMoab]

The next canyon down is called Granite Canyon, it's better. the enviros have been trying to shut down the road about half-way up for years so I'm not sure how far you can go, but the further you go the better it gets.
Two years ago we went up this canyon. There was a WSA marker in the middle of the road about half way up.

In fact all across the range we ran into WSA signs.

When I got home I let some guys at U4WDA know about it and they got right on it.

From what I heard they got the signs pulled as they weren't supposed to be there.

[SCW]

Good to know. I've pulled up several but wasn't sure it was kosher. In fact there used to be a pile of old signs in the bushes to the south. That big rock is called Hog's Back where they put the markers.

[xjblue]

oh the memories, that guy left marks in the road for miles in two directions!

that creek up Granite will be pretty full I bet with the temps this week.

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/379876935hfIFNN

I'd go too but I'm heading south!

[MoabXJeeper]

oh the memories, that guy left marks in the road for miles in two directions!

that creek up Granite will be pretty full I bet with the temps this week.

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/379876935hfIFNN

I'd go too but I'm heading south!

That was a great trip, thanks for the memories! How far south are you going? I wish my heep was ready for a trip. :(

[xjblue]

That was a great trip, thanks for the memories! How far south are you going? I wish my heep was ready for a trip. :(

I'm doin this one I missed last week.
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=908771