The trail West Point
The paved path down the west side of town sits on the Salt Lake Cutoff, the emigrant wagon road first driven in 1848
The Old Emigration Trail runs on an 1848 wagon road through West Point
The paved trail down the western edge of West Point follows the bed of the Old Emigrant Road, the wagon cut off that carried travelers north from Salt Lake City to the California Trail. Wagons first came up it in August 1848, and roughly 22,500 gold seekers followed in 1849 and 1850. West Point City calls the modern path the Emigrant Trail and counts 2.5 miles of it inside the city, ending at 1300 North. The trailhead is a plain paved lot beside the city cemetery on 4000 West.
By Scott Buehler, Moving Utah
Updated October 2026
The short answer
What it was, and where it ran
The Old Emigration Trail is the wagon route that ran north out of Salt Lake City across the western Davis County flats, up through what is now southern Idaho, to join the California Trail. It crossed the ground that is now West Point along the line of Bluff Road, and the city's paved Emigrant Trail today sits on that same road bed for 2.5 miles down the west side of town.
Emigrants first drove it in 1848 because it stayed low and level, avoiding the hills and sand of the older routes and keeping wagons near feed and water. That is exactly the western Davis flat, which is why the road came this way and why a farm town ended up with a straight, level path down the middle of it. What a resident can still see is the paved trail itself, the thirty foot rise of Schneiter's Bluff beside it, and the terminus at 1300 North. The pioneer monument that marks the road belongs to Syracuse, at the southern end of the corridor.
The wagon road
The Old Emigrant Road, and why the wagons came this way
The route had a few names of its own before it was ever paved. Travelers called it the Old Emigrant Road, the Old Traveled Road, and the Salt Lake Cutoff. It ran from Salt Lake City north through the western edge of Davis County and on into what is now southern Idaho, reaching the City of Rocks and joining the California Trail there. The reason it was preferred over the alternative is simple and it explains the shape of West Point itself: the cutoff avoided hills and sand and stayed close to feed and water for livestock. The flat, well watered ground on the west side of the valley was the easy way through, so that is where the wagons rolled.
The road opened in August 1848, when Captain Samuel Hensley and ten men came through, followed the same season by members of the Mormon Battalion returning from California with seventeen wagons, forty five men and one woman. The Daughters of Utah Pioneers, who keep the record of the road, count about 22,500 gold seekers over it in 1849 and 1850, and steady family traffic bound for California and Oregon from 1852 to 1857. For most of a decade this quiet corner of the county was a through road for the country's westward movement, decades before the first farms here were settled in the late 1860s.
One detail fixes where the road ran better than any map: Bluff Road through western Davis County roughly follows the original path of the historic Emigrant Road. That is a corridor across several towns rather than a feature of any one of them, which is why the paved trail on it today crosses two city lines and picks up a different name in each place. The road belonged to the whole western county long before West Point, Syracuse, or Clinton were drawn on it.
A wagon route chosen because it avoided hills and sand is now a paved path across a town that is still mostly fields. The reason it is flat and the reason it is straight are the same reason.
Where it crossed West Point
Down the west side of town, along the foot of the bluff
Inside West Point the old road ran roughly north to south along what is now the western edge of the city, and the paved Emigrant Trail traces that line. The city measures 2.5 miles of the trail inside its boundary and the city's plans agree on the northern end: the path begins in Syracuse to the south and ends at 1300 North in West Point. The city owns that named end, the terminus, and the parking. It does not own the whole thing. About two thirds of the paved corridor lies south of the city line in Syracuse, so 2.5 miles is West Point's honest share, not the length of the trail.
The most useful landmark for picturing the route is the rise it runs beside. Schneiter's Bluff is a thirty foot step in the land that parallels the trail, and it is the reason one of the path's nicknames is the Bluff Trail. The bluff decides a great deal about this side of town, from which ground drains to which water district bills the tap, and it is worth reading on its own. The page on Schneiter's Bluff covers the step, the soils above and below it, and the marsh at the bottom of the slope.
The other thing running along the same western edge now is the West Davis Corridor, the sixteen mile state highway that opened in early 2024 and reaches its northern terminus here in West Point. Its northern extension work put fresh construction along the trail's alignment, and the trail is being carried north as part of that project. What the highway means for the streets around it, the interchange, and the bridges over 300 North, 800 North and 1300 North is covered on the West Davis Corridor page.
What you can still see
One paved lot by the cemetery, and the road bed under your feet
You can walk the road today because the city paved it. West Point publishes one trailhead, a large paved lot just west of the West Point City Cemetery on 4000 West, near the southern end of the city's segment rather than at the 1300 North terminus. There is nothing at it but the parking: no water, no restroom, no shade. The cemetery sits at 80 North 4000 West, which puts the trailhead at about that corner, and the landmark you look for on a map is the cemetery, not the trail. Two walking directories instead point to roadside parking up at 1300 North; the lot the city stands behind is the one by the cemetery, so that is the one to use.
The path itself is flat, straight, and shadeless, a good surface across open farm ground with the bluff on one side and very little traffic noise. It is not a scenic trail and nobody should sell it as one. What it is, is the oldest thing in West Point you can still stand on: a continuous north to south route on a wagon road bed that predates every farm and every subdivision around it. In July and August the lack of shade is the whole story of when to walk it, so an early morning or an evening is the answer.
The name confusion is worth clearing once, because the path looks like several trails when you go looking for it online. West Point calls it the Emigrant Trail in the city's plans, and that is the name to prefer. Walking directories variously list it as the Old Emigration Trail, the Bluff Trail after the landform beside it, and the Syracuse Trail after the city to the south. Underneath all of them is the historic Old Emigrant Road. And it is not the Legacy Parkway Trail, which runs more than twenty miles south at the bottom of the county; the two are easy to mix up and worth keeping straight.
If you want to walk it
The monument
The stone that commemorates the Old Emigrant Road is not in West Point. The Daughters of Utah Pioneers and the City of Syracuse placed it at the southern end of the corridor and dedicated it in 1989, on chapel grounds on Bluff Road in Syracuse. It, and the southern trailhead beside it, belong to the next town down. West Point's share is the northern end: the 2.5 miles, the terminus at 1300 North, the one paved lot, and the road bed underneath.
Check access near the highway before you go. The northern end of the trail runs beside the West Davis Corridor extension, and construction there can close a stretch of the path or route heavy trucks past it. Walking directories describe an open trail and are slow to note this. For current access, check the state transportation department's project site for the corridor at westdavis.udot.utah.gov or its project line, 877-298-1991, rather than a trail app.
The other paved path
West Point has two trails, and together they are the whole system
The Emigrant Trail is one of exactly two regional paths in the city, and the two of them are its entire existing trail network. The second runs east and west along the southern edge of town, passing south of the golf course before jogging north and east between 200 South and the state highway. The city measures 2.2 miles of it inside West Point, which added to the Emigrant Trail's 2.5 miles makes 4.7 miles, the plan's own figure for the city's existing regional trail.
That east to west path is the one that answers a question the practical city guide leaves open. It is the SR-193 trail, and it connects the Emigrant Trail in the west with Syracuse, Clearfield, and points east, eventually reaching the Denver and Rio Grande Western Rail Trail, which runs from Roy to Centerville. So if you start at the cemetery lot, you are within a quarter mile of the second path as well, and between the two you can get a good way across the north end of the county without crossing an arterial. In this part of Davis County that is rarer than it sounds.
Scott Buehler
Moving Utah About Scott
Quick answers
The trail, answered
It is a paved shared use path down the western edge of West Point that sits on the bed of the Old Emigrant Road, the wagon route emigrants drove north from Salt Lake City to the California Trail. West Point City calls the modern path the Emigrant Trail and counts 2.5 miles of it inside the city, ending at 1300 North.
The road, also called the Salt Lake Cutoff, ran from Salt Lake City north across the western edge of Davis County and on into what is now southern Idaho, reaching the City of Rocks and joining the California Trail there. It was chosen over the alternative because it avoided hills and sand and stayed near feed and water for livestock. Through West Point it followed the line of Bluff Road.
Wagons first drove it in August 1848. It carried heavy traffic through the gold rush of 1849 and 1850 and steady family travel bound for California and Oregon from 1852 to 1857. That is decades before the first farms here were settled in the late 1860s, so the road was a through route long before there was a town around it.
The record kept by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers dates the first passage to August 1848, by Captain Samuel Hensley and ten men, followed the same season by Mormon Battalion members returning from California with seventeen wagons, forty five men and one woman. About 22,500 gold seekers used the route in 1849 and 1850, and families bound west traveled it heavily from 1852 to 1857.
Yes. The city paved the old road bed as the Emigrant Trail, a flat, straight, shadeless path across open farm ground with Schneiter's Bluff on one side. It is the oldest thing in West Point you can still stand on. The northern end runs beside the West Davis Corridor, where construction can affect a stretch, so check the project site for current access near the highway before a long walk.
At the city's one published trailhead, a large paved lot just west of the West Point City Cemetery on 4000 West. The cemetery is at 80 North 4000 West, which puts the lot at about that corner. There is nothing there but the parking, so carry your own water. Two walking directories point to roadside parking up at 1300 North instead, but the lot by the cemetery is the one the city stands behind.
Two and a half miles. That is the figure West Point publishes for the stretch inside the city, and it is the honest one to use. The full corridor is longer, but about two thirds of the paved path lies south of the city line in Syracuse. West Point owns the northern end, the terminus at 1300 North, and the trailhead; the length is mostly Syracuse ground.
West Point calls it the Emigrant Trail in both of its adopted plans, and that is the name to prefer. Walking directories list it as the Old Emigration Trail, the Bluff Trail after Schneiter's Bluff running beside it, and the Syracuse Trail after the city to the south. All of them describe the same paved path, and underneath the path is the historic Old Emigrant Road.
In Syracuse, not West Point. The Daughters of Utah Pioneers and the City of Syracuse placed the marker at the southern end of the corridor and dedicated it in 1989, on chapel grounds on Bluff Road in Syracuse. The monument and the southern trailhead beside it belong to that town. West Point's share of the road is the northern end, the 2.5 miles and the terminus at 1300 North.
Looking at a street near the old road?
West Point is farm ground turning into subdivisions, and the addresses near the trail and the new highway are some of the most talked about in the city. If you are weighing a street here, tell me which ones. I connect buyers and sellers in Davis County with a local partner agent I trust, who can walk the ground with you and tell you which side of the corridor an address sits on, and I stay on the file for the financing side.
Or call Scott: (435) 357-4345or send Scott a message
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