Last updated: June 10, 2021
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Hastings Pass: Optional Backcountry Route
Be prepared! This optional backcountry route is a continuation of the Skull Valley and Hastings Pass Backcountry Route and follows 29 miles of unpaved road along the original route of the Hastings Cutoff through the Cedar Mountains at Hastings Pass. It is typically passable when dry for high-clearance 2-wheel-drive vehicles.The backcountry route rejoins I-80 at Aragonite (Exit 56).
If continuing on unpaved roads:
- Carry a fully inflated spare tire in good condition.
- There is no opportunity to buy gas, water, or food along the way.
- Most of the route is out of cell phone range.
- Consider traveling with a second vehicle in case of breakdown.
- This is open range country: watch for livestock and wildlife along the highways and back roads.
Directions
From Hope Wells the Hastings Cutoff turns northwest, but today’s backcountry traveler continues south on UT-196.
At highway (UT-196) milepost 20, about 7.5 miles south of Horseshoe Springs, watch for a brown sign for 8-Mile Spring and Rydahl Canyon. There, turn right, reset your trip odometer, and cross a cattle guard onto a gravel road. DO NOT PROCEED if the road is wet. (Be aware that odometer mileage readings may vary slightly from one vehicle to another.)
Drive due west 1.3 miles to a road junction. Stay on the main road as it angles about 45 degrees to the right — do not continue straight toward the Cedar Mountains. Continue along the main road, disregarding minor offshoot roads.
At odometer reading 2.8 miles is a cattle guard and a Bureau of Land Management entrance sign with advisories concerning the Cedar Mountains area. About another one and three-quarters of a mile ahead the road veers left across a drainage, angles northwestward again, and approaches some white clay mounds on the right. There the road forks. Bear right, leaving the gravel road and entering a secondary bladed clay road that passes northwest around the clay mounds. Often the road here is moist at the junction but dry beyond the mounds. DO NOT PROCEED if the road beyond the mounds is wet.
From here the Hastings Cutoff lies about 2.5 miles to the northwest, making a beeline toward Hastings Pass.
Continue northwest to a 4-way intersection at odometer mile 11.3. Turn north (right). The road next makes several broad, sweeping curves over the next 1.5 mile stretch, gradually converging with the Hastings Cutoff trail.
The wagon trail and the road intersect at odometer reading 12.7 miles. Stop near a white fiberglass trail post on the right and get out to explore the ruts on foot. Do not drive on the ruts.
Follow the trail ruts on foot to the right for a short distance and stand facing east toward the Stansbury Mountains. At the north (left) end of the range lies Timpie Point, where this tour segment began. Between here and there stretches a 10-mile expanse of impassable wetlands and mud flats — the light-colored, barren ground in the middle distance. Look back down the trail swales to the southeast to see where the wagons finally started across Skull Valley. Then turn around and look up the trail to the northwest, toward the Cedar Mountains. Hastings Pass is at the lowest point in the range ahead.
Directions
Now the road merges with the trail. About a mile ahead the road curves sharply west (left), narrows to one lane, and enters a dry wash. At this location, the wagon trail crosses the wash: look for a white fiberglass trail post on the opposite bank. After a mile the road leaves the wash and comes to a junction.
On private land in this vicinity is Redlum Spring. It was briny and, some emigrants believed, unsuitable for livestock, but it was the last water on the Hastings Cutoff for nearly 65 miles.
Directions
Zero your trip odometer at the road junction and turn north (right).
Now the trail is on the right side of the modern road. Look on the right for a white fiberglass post marking its passage.
At odometer mile 0.7, a white fiberglass trail post on the right marks wagon ruts near the road. At mile 1.5, stop and look ahead to the left. In the distant sagebrush, a series of white fiberglass posts shows the trail route turning northwest past a large outcrop of basalt.
The modern road continues northeast to a three-way intersection about one and a half miles further. A Bureau of Land Management sign for the Cedar Mountain Wilderness Area stands at the junction. Turn left (northwest) and begin the climb toward Hastings Pass.
Hastings Pass
About a mile ahead, the road enters a ravine through a burned area bristling with dead junipers. Here the wagon trail merges briefly with the road. The ravine grows deeper and narrower, increasingly difficult terrain for wagons. On the left at odometer mile 4.9, trail ruts (marked with a white fiberglass post) leave the roadway and climb a steep hogsback ridge to Hastings Pass. Do not park here, but pause to drop off any hikers who wish to follow the wagon ruts up to the pass. From the pass hikers can walk down a spur-road that leads back to the main road. The hike is about 0.8 mile.
Meanwhile, drivers continue ahead for a half-mile to the spur road on the left. Follow the spur road up the first rise to the south and park at the exhibit turnout to await the hikers. Driving the spur road to the trail marker is not recommended, as the road is steep and rocky, and there is almost no room to turn around.
The summit of Hastings Pass, on top of the ridge, is marked by a brown T-rail post. From this height emigrants could look back across Skull Valley, but the view to the west is blocked by nearby hills. Once here on top of the hogsback, wagons turned sharply to the right and then descended a rough “dugway” or road cut, still visible, into the deep wash on the left. They followed the wash back down to the main canyon. Hikers can follow the trail down to the main road and turn right to meet their vehicle back at roadside turnout, or they can descend via the gravel spur-road.
From the pullout, continue west. Just ahead, at a hairpin turn in the road (odometer 5.5 miles), look left to see the ravine where the wagon trail down from Hastings Pass re-enters the roadway. Two miles farther, road and trail emerge from the Cedar Mountains and travelers get their first look at the bleak expanse ahead.
Pull over to take in the view. Imagine the dismay and dread emigrants felt, their thirsty oxen already bellowing for water, as they gazed out across the shining desert. Pilot Peak, rising on the opposite side of the salt flats, shimmers pale blue on the northwestern horizon. Next water, Donner Springs, lies at its foot.
As the modern road descends to the flats, watch on the right and the left for white fiberglass posts that mark the trail. The gravel road continues straight ahead past an industrial incinerator and intersects paved road at odometer mile 9.9. Turn north (right), leaving the wagon trail, and drive 2.3 miles. Enter westbound I-80.
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