Fifteen minutes out: the grist mill and the fairgrounds
Inside 15 minutes Still in the valley Half-day stops
The two closest trips barely count as leaving home. North of town toward the Interstate 80 interchange, just off State Route 138 in Stansbury Park, the Benson Grist Mill still stands as it was built in 1854, a rock and timber mill put up on Brigham Young's instruction and pegged together with wooden dowels. The Tooele County grounds around it host a seasonal calendar of markets and heritage events, and the walk through the old mill is free.
A few minutes west of town, out on State Route 112 between Tooele and Grantsville, The Peak Sports and Entertainment Complex is the county's fairground and arena. It carries the Tooele County Fair in the summer, the Fourth of July rodeo, and a rolling slate of derbies, equine events, and shows through the year. It went by the Deseret Peak Complex name for years, so you will still see both.
Neither is a full day on its own, which is the point. Pair the mill with a loop around Stansbury Park, or time a run out to The Peak around whatever is on the board.
The details
Reading the region pages
Both have their own full writeups. The Stansbury Park guide covers the mill, the lake, and the observatory north of town, and the fair, the rodeo, and the venue get the deep treatment on The Peak and the county fair.
Before you go
- The Benson Grist Mill and its grounds keep a seasonal event calendar, so time a visit around a market or a heritage day.
- The Peak sits out on SR-112 between Tooele and Grantsville, not on Main Street, so it is a short drive rather than a walk downtown.
- The fairgrounds still carry the older Deseret Peak Complex name in some listings; they are the same place.
- Check what is on the board at The Peak before you drive out; the grounds are busiest during fair week and event weekends.
Half an hour: the overlook, Ophir, and the west valley
Inside 30 to 40 minutes Canyon, ghost town, and range Half-day trips
Half an hour in three directions gives you the best short trips around Tooele. East of town, Vine Street climbs into Middle Canyon, and the paved road gives way to about four miles of dirt that top out at the Oquirrh overlook, the only public west-side look straight down into Kennecott's Bingham Canyon Mine, the largest open-pit mine on earth. The upper road is gated by snow and opens only for the warm half of the year, roughly June through the start of November.
South of town, up a canyon off Rush Valley, Ophir is a genuine near ghost town you can walk through. Silver built it in the 1870s, and a scatter of preserved and relocated buildings still lines the single street. People live in Ophir today, though, so it is visited with the manners you would want on your own street: stay on the public road, respect private property, and take only pictures.
West, State Route 138 runs eleven miles to Grantsville, the valley's second town, and the road carries on toward South Willow Canyon and the trailhead for Deseret Peak, the 11,031-foot high point of the Stansbury range. Grantsville is about twenty minutes out; the canyon and the summit trail are closer to forty and open on the mountain's own seasonal clock.
The details
Reading the region pages
Each has a full guide. The Ophir guide walks the street and the etiquette, the Middle Canyon writeup covers the road and the season up to the overlook, and Grantsville with South Willow Canyon and the Deseret Peak trail sits in the Grantsville city guide.
Before you go
- The top four miles of Middle Canyon are unpaved and closed by snow much of the year; a normal car handles the dry-weather road, but check that the gate is open.
- Ophir is a lived-in town, not an abandoned one; keep to the public road and let private property stay private.
- Grantsville is a quick run, but the South Willow road and the Deseret Peak trail open later and close earlier with the mountain snow.
- These three point in three different directions, so pick one; they do not chain into a single loop.
Forty minutes to an hour: the capital and Skull Valley
East and west The metro and the empty valley A half to full day
Two very different trips sit around the hour mark, in opposite directions. East, State Route 36 runs north to Interstate 80 and over the Oquirrh saddle into the Salt Lake Valley, and downtown Salt Lake City is about forty minutes away. The capital is where you go for the widest range of everything, from professional sports and big concerts to the deepest shopping and dining. Salt Lake City International Airport sits on the near side of the valley, so for a Tooele resident it is the closest major destination, a touch quicker than downtown at around thirty-five minutes.
West is the opposite world. Skull Valley opens beyond the Stansbury range, a wide, quiet basin most travelers only glimpse from I-80. Out there sits Iosepa, the townsite of a Hawaiian pioneer settlement that lived from 1889 to 1917 and now holds a cemetery and a pavilion where families still gather. Horseshoe Springs, the old Lincoln Highway line, and the Goshute reservation are part of the same drive, about an hour west of Tooele.
One trip is the city you lean on; the other is the emptiest kind of Utah, and both start from the same Main Street.
The details
Where to read more
Skull Valley has its own full guide covering Iosepa, the springs, and the road; open the Skull Valley guide before the drive. For the metro, the Salt Lake City guide lays out the neighborhoods on the far side of the hill.
Before you go
- The drive to Salt Lake climbs over the Oquirrh saddle on I-80; it is easy most of the year but slows in hard winter weather.
- The airport is the closest big destination from Tooele, which is worth knowing for a flight out.
- Skull Valley is open, remote country with few services; fuel up and carry water before you head west.
- Iosepa's Memorial Day gathering is a living tradition; if you visit the townsite, treat the cemetery with respect.
Past ninety minutes: the salt, Wendover, and the wild horses
The far west desert Salt flats and open range Full-day trips
The far end of Tooele County is some of the emptiest land in the lower forty-eight, and the biggest trips are out there. About ninety minutes west on I-80, the Bonneville Salt Flats spread out white and level to the horizon, the racing ground where land-speed records are set. You can walk out onto the salt and, when the surface is dry, drive on it, but wet salt swallows cars and there are no services until Wendover, so the timing matters more than anything else out here.
Wendover itself is about an hour and forty minutes west, on the Utah side of the state line. Its story is the historic airfield, one of the largest training bases of the Second World War, where crews trained on ground that is still marked out on the desert floor. South of the valley, the Pony Express Trail runs the original 1860 mail route across the desert on graded gravel; out along it near Simpson Springs, the Onaqui wild horse herd grazes within sight of the road, though a wild herd is never a guaranteed sighting. Closer in, Stansbury Island reaches into the Great Salt Lake off I-80, with a BLM trail about forty-five minutes out, and the county's mining ghost towns, from the gated Mercur to far-west Gold Hill, fill in the map between.
None of these is a quick errand. They are the full-day drives that make living at the edge of the west desert its own kind of geography.
The details
Reading the region pages
Every one of these has its own full guide. Start with the Bonneville Salt Flats guide for the salt and the racing, Wendover and the deep historic airfield writeup, the Pony Express Trail with the Onaqui wild horses viewing guide, Stansbury Island on the lake's west shore, and the county's ghost towns and mining camps survey.
Before you go
- Drive onto the salt flats only when the surface is dry; wet salt traps vehicles and a tow is a long way off. The full caution is on the salt-flats guide.
- There are no services across the west desert; fill the tank and carry water before Wendover or the Pony Express Road.
- The Pony Express Road is graded gravel with no fuel or cell service; it is a dry-weather drive, best in a vehicle with some clearance.
- A wild herd moves; the Onaqui horses are often near the road past Simpson Springs, but plan for the chance of not seeing them.
