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The Local

West Desert Tooele County

A backcountry byway field guide to the emptiest quarter of Utah

The Pony Express Trail across the West Desert.

This is the one place in America where you can drive the actual 1860 route of the Pony Express, on the original dirt, past a rebuilt relay station, a free federal campground, and a famous herd of wild horses. It is also one of the emptiest, most remote drives close to a Utah city. The thing most first timers get wrong is treating it like a scenic loop: there are no services, and after rain the road turns to trapping mud.

On this page The short answer The route and its stops Where to camp Wild horses Rush Valley and Vernon FAQ
By Scott Buehler, Moving Utah Updated August 2026

The short answer

The Pony Express National Historic Trail Back Country Byway follows the original 1860 mail route across Utah's West Desert on graded dirt. The east start is I-15 Exit 279 at Lehi, then State Route 73 west to where the pavement ends near Fivemile Pass. From there the byway runs past Faust and Lookout Pass to the restored Simpson Springs station, then west toward Ibapah. Most visitors do only the eastern stretch, out to Simpson Springs and back, which is a comfortable half day. Driving the whole thing to Ibapah is a full day with no fuel, no food, and no cell signal, so it rewards a full tank, extra water, and dry weather.

Where The West Desert of Tooele County, from Fivemile Pass west toward Ibapah
From Salt Lake City About an hour to the pavement's end, then graded dirt from there
Season Passable year round when dry; spring mud and winter snow close it
Cost Free to drive; Simpson Springs camping about 15 dollars a night
Time needed A half day to Simpson Springs and back; a full day to Ibapah

The drive, east to west

  1. 1. Fivemile Pass, where the pavement ends
  2. 2. Faust and Lookout Pass
  3. 3. Simpson Springs station and camp
  4. 4. The Onaqui wild horses
  5. 5. Rush Valley and Vernon
  6. 6. The Dugway geode beds detour

This is a remote road with no services, and the mud is the real danger. The byway is graded gravel and dirt that drives fine when dry and turns slick and trapping after rain or snowmelt. There is no fuel, no water, and no help along it, and cell signal disappears once the pavement ends. Start with a full tank, carry extra water, a spare and a paper map, tell someone your route, and turn back if the surface is wet. A high clearance vehicle is the sane baseline for anything past Simpson Springs.

The route

Getting on the byway, and what you pass.

The cleanest way onto the trail from the Wasatch Front is I-15 Exit 279 at Lehi, then State Route 73 running southwest for about 25 miles. The pavement carries you past the growing edge of Utah County and out into open range, and near Fivemile Pass it gives way to graded dirt. That handoff, from tarmac to washboard, is where the West Desert really begins. From there the marked Back Country Byway runs west past the Faust area and over Lookout Pass to Simpson Springs, then on across the Old River Bed toward Callao and Ibapah near the Nevada line.

You are driving the same corridor the mail riders rode in 1860 and 1861, when the Pony Express carried letters coast to coast in about ten days before the telegraph made it obsolete in eighteen months. The relay stations sat roughly a dozen miles apart, spaced by how far a horse could run hard. Most of them are gone to a marker and a scatter of stone, which is part of what makes the one rebuilt station, at Simpson Springs, worth the drive.

Fivemile Pass, where the pavement ends

State Route 73 Free The east gateway

Fivemile Pass is the low saddle on SR-73 that straddles the Tooele and Utah county line, and for most people it is the front door to this whole country. It is a federal recreation area of about 17,900 acres, free to use, with dispersed camping and a heavy off highway calendar; the Bureau of Land Management counts on the order of 65,000 visitors a year here for the dirt bikes, side by sides and mountain bikes. It is the last easy place to air down, top off, and check the weather before the services stop.

If you are only out for the morning, Fivemile Pass is a fine destination on its own. If you are driving the byway, it is the mile marker in your head: past here you are on your own resources.

The details

WhereThe Fivemile Pass Recreation Area, on SR-73 at the Tooele and Utah county line
From LehiAbout 25 minutes west on SR-73
SeasonOpen year round; busiest spring through fall
CostFree, including dispersed camping
Time neededAn hour to a full weekend for riders

Before you go

  • There is no potable water and no fuel here, so arrive topped off and carrying your own.
  • It is a shared area of vehicles, bikes and horses; watch for fast machines over blind rises.
  • Knolls, the sand dune riding area off I-80 to the north, is a separate spot and charges a day use fee; Fivemile Pass does not.

Faust and Lookout Pass

Along the byway Waypoints No services

West of Fivemile Pass the byway crosses the Faust area, named for a stage and Pony Express stop that stood here; the Faust name still marks the map where the road meets the SR-36 corridor coming down from Tooele. There is little to see but the marker and the country, which is the point. From Faust the road climbs over Lookout Pass, a modest gap between low desert ranges, and drops toward the wide basin that holds Simpson Springs.

These are the beads on the string between the two things worth stopping for, the gateway behind you and the station ahead. Keep your speed sane on the washboard, and remember that every mile west is a mile you have to drive back.

Simpson Springs station and camp

The rebuilt station Camping about 15 dollars Year round

Simpson Springs is the anchor of the whole eastern byway, and the reason is water. The spring here was one of the few dependable sources across this stretch of desert, so it drew the overland stage, the Pony Express, and the freight roads that followed. The stone station you see today is a reconstruction of the 1860 relay station, set on the low rise above the spring, with interpretive signs that lay out the route and the riders. It is the one place on the trail where the station is a building again rather than a plaque.

On the slope above the station the Bureau of Land Management runs a small campground of about twenty sites at 15 dollars a night, with vault toilets and drinking water available seasonally. Sites 1 through 10 can be reserved on Recreation.gov and sites 11 through 19 are first come, first served, paid on site. Camped here, you get the thing this country does better than almost anywhere near Salt Lake: a black sky with the Milky Way standing up over the desert, and quiet you can hear.

The details

WhereSimpson Springs station and campground, on the byway west of Faust
From Salt Lake CityRoughly 1.5 to 2 hours, the last stretch on graded dirt
SeasonYear round; water is seasonal, roads best when dry
CostDay use free; camping about 15 dollars a night
Time neededA half day from the east, longer to camp

Getting there

From Fivemile Pass, stay on the marked Pony Express Back Country Byway west through Faust and over Lookout Pass; Simpson Springs is signed on the north side of the road, with the station on the rise and the campground loop above it. From the Tooele side you can also reach Faust by dropping south down SR-36 through Rush Valley and turning onto the byway.

Before you go

  • Bring all your own water; the campground tap runs only in the warm months and cannot be counted on.
  • Reserve sites 1 through 10 ahead on Recreation.gov if you want a reserved spot on a weekend; the rest are first come.
  • This is the natural turnaround for a day trip; pushing on to Ibapah past here commits you to a long, remote drive.
  • Pack out everything, and give the station and its signs the respect of a place people worked and died to keep running.

Where to stay

Three places to camp along the corridor.

There is no lodging out here, so a night on the Pony Express corridor means camping. Three developed choices sit within reach of the byway, and they trade off in useful ways.

Camping options along the Pony Express corridor
WhereManaged byCostWaterBest for
Simpson SpringsBureau of Land ManagementAbout 15 dollars a nightSeasonal tap, vault toiletsThe restored station and dark skies
Fivemile PassBureau of Land ManagementFree, dispersedNone, bring your ownOff highway riding at the east gateway
Vernon ReservoirUinta-Wasatch-Cache National ForestDay use fee, per vehicleNone, bring your ownTrout fishing south of the byway

The wild horses, in one paragraph

The Onaqui herd ranges this road

A free roaming band of wild horses, the Onaqui herd of roughly 450 animals, lives on this country and often grazes within sight of the Pony Express Road near Simpson Springs. Because they range so close to the drive and are used to people at a distance, they are described as one of the most photographed wild herds in the United States. They are wild, though, and a sighting is never a sure thing on any given day.

Read the full Onaqui viewing guide, with the distance rules and the best seasons

Rush Valley and Vernon

The valley the byway crosses, and a store dug by hand.

The eastern end of this country is Rush Valley, the trench of grazing land that opens south of Tooele Valley between the Oquirrh and Stansbury ranges. SR-36 runs down its length through the small towns of Stockton, Rush Valley and Vernon before the pavement thins toward the desert. It is quiet ranch country now, but it once fed the mining camps in the mountains above it, and it holds one of the strangest buildings in Utah history.

The Ajax Underground Store

Rush Valley Free roadside marker Dug from 1870

In 1870 a Welsh immigrant named William Ajax began digging a store into the ground of Rush Valley, by hand, with a shovel and a wheelbarrow. What he built was a two story underground department store, roughly 80 by 100 feet and dropping as much as twenty feet below the surface, its roof held up by juniper and pine timbers he cut in the mountains to the west and hauled back himself. He stocked it like a real emporium, food, clothing, hardware, tools and medicine arranged in departments, and a post office called Centre opened alongside it.

For a couple of decades the underground store supplied the miners of Stockton, Ophir and Mercur, until the railroad reached the valley and made a lonely desert store unnecessary. Ajax died in 1899, his family ran it until 1914, and today a historical marker on SR-36 tells the story where the store once stood. It is a five minute stop and a genuinely odd piece of Utah, worth the pause if you are coming at the byway from the Tooele side.

The details

WhereA historical marker on SR-36 in Rush Valley, south of Tooele
From TooeleAbout 25 minutes south on SR-36
SeasonRoadside marker, year round
CostFree
Time neededA short stop, about fifteen minutes

Vernon Reservoir

South of Vernon Day use fee Trout fishing

At the far south end of Rush Valley, past the little town of Vernon, a Forest Service road climbs about nine miles up into the mountains to Vernon Reservoir, a small trout water managed as part of the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. It is a simple place: a dispersed campground with a handful of sites, fire rings and drop toilets, a day use fee paid per vehicle, and no drinking water, so you pack in your own. Powerboats are not allowed, which keeps it a quiet spot for fishing tiger, rainbow and brown trout and watching the sky.

The Dugway geode beds detour

A signed detour In Juab County Free to collect

One of the best known rockhounding grounds in the state opens off this same byway: the Dugway geode beds, where the public can dig hollow, crystal lined geodes for personal use with no permit and keep whatever they crack open. Worth knowing before you point the car at it, though, the beds are not in Tooele County at all. They sit across the line in Juab County, reached by a long, rough detour of dirt road south and west of the Simpson Springs area.

Treat the geode beds as their own half day trip rather than a quick side stop. The road out is slow and washed in places, there are no services anywhere near, and you will want a shovel, a pry bar, water and time. It is a real adventure, just not a casual one.

The details

WhereBLM rockhounding grounds off the Pony Express Road, in Juab County
From Simpson SpringsA long, rough drive south and west; plan on hours
SeasonBest in dry, mild weather; avoid the mud
CostFree; no permit to collect for personal use
Time neededA half day at least, prepared and self sufficient

The dark sky, and a note on the range

The reason to stay a night out here, and not just drive through, is the dark. The Simpson Springs, Rush Valley and Vernon country sits far enough from any city that on a clear, moonless night the Milky Way stands up bright over the desert, less than two hours from the state capital. There is no official dark sky designation on this ground, just genuine darkness of the kind that is getting rare within reach of the Wasatch Front. If you would rather look through a real telescope with people who know the sky, the Salt Lake Astronomical Society runs free public star parties at the Stansbury Park Observatory Complex on the other side of the county.

One piece of geography to know: much of the land south and west of the byway belongs to Dugway Proving Ground, a large Army test range that is one of the West Desert's major landowners and employers. You will see its boundary signs. Stay on the public byway and the marked roads, respect the posted limits, and it is simply the backdrop to the drive.

What to know before you go

Plan it around the road, the water, and the weather.

This is genuine backcountry within an hour of a major city, which is exactly what makes it easy to underestimate. Three things shape a safe trip more than anything else.

The road and the mud

  • Graded dirt that drives fine dry and traps vehicles wet; turn back if it is muddy
  • High clearance is the sane baseline; four wheel drive helps on the spurs
  • Air pressure, a full size spare and a plug kit matter more than horsepower
  • Cell signal ends with the pavement, so download or carry a paper map

Water and fuel

  • No fuel and no store anywhere on the byway; leave with a full tank
  • Carry far more water than you think you need, for you and the radiator
  • The Simpson Springs tap is seasonal and not guaranteed; do not rely on it
  • Tell someone your route and your expected return before you leave the pavement

Season and timing

  • Late spring and fall are the kind seasons; summer midday is fierce and shadeless
  • Spring runoff and winter snow can close the road for weeks at a time
  • The eastern run to Simpson Springs and back is the safe half day sampler
  • Camp for the night sky; it is the payoff the day trip never sees

Living near the West Desert

The towns that put this country in the backyard.

Nobody lives out on the byway, but the Tooele Valley towns sit within an easy drive of where the pavement ends, which is part of what draws people who want space and open country close to Salt Lake. If you are weighing the area, these are the doors into it.

The county seat

Tooele

The closest full service base, with SR-36 running straight down Rush Valley to the byway.

Open the city guide

West of Tooele

Grantsville

Ranch town at the foot of the Stansbury Mountains, with South Willow Canyon at its back.

Open the city guide

Horse country

Erda

Utah's newest city, big lots and acreage between Tooele and the interstate.

Open the city guide

The county's front door

Lake Point

Where SR-36 meets I-80, the shortest commute in the county to Salt Lake.

Open the city guide

Keep reading

More of the West Desert, on The Local.

The herd, in full

The Onaqui Wild Horses

Where and when to find the herd, how close is too close, and the honest photography reality.

Read the guide

The mining camps

Ghost Towns and Mining Camps

Ophir, Mercur, Stockton and Gold Hill, sorted by which ones you can actually walk today.

Read the guide

Where to look up

Stansbury Park

The lakeside community with an 1854 gristmill and one of the largest amateur telescopes open to the public.

Read the guide

Quick answers

The West Desert drive, answered.

Yes. The Pony Express National Historic Trail Back Country Byway follows the original 1860 mail route across Utah's West Desert on graded dirt and gravel, and most of it is passable in a high clearance vehicle in dry weather. The usual east start is I-15 Exit 279 at Lehi, then State Route 73 west about 25 miles to where the pavement ends. From there it runs past Faust, Lookout Pass and Simpson Springs toward Ibapah. There are no services on the byway, so start with a full tank.

The graded byway runs on the order of 130 miles from the Faust area west to Ibapah, and driving the whole thing is a full day with no fuel or food along the way. Many people do only the eastern stretch, from Fivemile Pass out to Simpson Springs and back, which is a comfortable half day sampler of the route and its best known station.

Yes. The BLM campground at Simpson Springs has about twenty sites at 15 dollars a night, with sites 1 through 10 reservable on Recreation.gov and 11 through 19 first come, first served; it has vault toilets and seasonal water. Fivemile Pass at the east end allows free dispersed camping, and Vernon Reservoir south of the byway has a fee campground run by the Forest Service. Bring your own water everywhere out here.

The Onaqui herd ranges along the Pony Express Road near Simpson Springs and the Old River Bed, and a second band lives at the north end near Dugway. The horses are wild and roam a huge area, so a sighting is never guaranteed on any given day. The full viewing guide, the season and time of day behavior, and the BLM distance rules are on our Onaqui Wild Horses page.

In dry weather the graded main byway is passable in a high clearance, two wheel drive vehicle, and four wheel drive helps on the rougher spur roads and after weather. The real hazard is not the grade but the mud: the surface turns slick and trapping after rain or snowmelt, and there is no one out here to pull you out. Carry a full tank, extra water, a spare and a paper map, because cell signal disappears.

Simpson Springs is a restored Pony Express station built around one of the more reliable springs on the whole route, which is why the riders, and the stage line before them, stopped here. Today it has the rebuilt stone station, interpretive signs, and the BLM campground on the rise above it. It is the natural anchor and turnaround for a day on the eastern byway.

They are a signed detour off the same byway, not a stop on the route itself, and they lie in Juab County rather than Tooele. The beds are free BLM rockhounding ground where the public may dig geodes for personal use with no permit, and you keep what you find. The access road is a long, rough drive, so treat it as its own half day trip and go prepared.

It was a two story underground department store in Rush Valley, dug out by hand by a Welsh immigrant named William Ajax with a shovel and a wheelbarrow starting in 1870. The building ran roughly 80 by 100 feet, dropped as much as twenty feet below ground, and supplied miners in Stockton, Ophir and Mercur until the railroad made it unnecessary. A historical marker on State Route 36 tells the story where the store once stood.

It is genuinely dark. The Simpson Springs, Rush Valley and Vernon country sits far from any city glow, and on a clear, moonless night the Milky Way is easy to see, less than two hours from the state capital. There is no formal dark sky designation out here, just real darkness. For organized stargazing with big telescopes, the Stansbury Park Observatory Complex is the nearest option, covered on our Stansbury Park page.

Scott Buehler, Moving Utah

A day on the old trail, and open country close to the city.

The West Desert is the reason a lot of people look hard at Tooele County: an hour from Salt Lake on one edge, and this kind of emptiness on the other. What a drive down the Pony Express Road cannot tell you is whether a given town works for your household, which turns on things a field guide cannot carry, the commute over the Oquirrhs, which streets sit in the wind, and what a place actually costs. Tell me what you are weighing and I will introduce you to a Tooele County partner agent who knows the valley, and stay on the file for the research and the financing side.

Open the Tooele guide Talk to Scott

Referral disclosure. Outside Southern Utah, I connect home sellers and buyers with partner agents I trust in their area. If you choose to work with an agent I refer, that agent's brokerage pays my brokerage (Real Broker, LLC) a referral fee. The fee comes out of the agent's compensation; it is not an added cost to you. You are always free to choose any agent you wish, and using a referred agent is never required.