Last updated: January 10, 2023
Place
Bonneville Salt Flats Special Recreation Management Area
NPS Photo
Quick Facts
Location:
Interstate 80, mile 4, Utah
Significance:
The Hastings Cutoff traversed the salt flats
Designation:
Bureau of Land Management Special Recreation Management Area
MANAGED BY:
The Bonneville Salt Flats are a 30,000 acre expanse of hard, white salt crust on the western edge of the Great Salt Lake basin in Utah. This Special Recreation Management Area is managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The salt flats are about 12 miles long and 5 miles wide with total area coverage of just over 46 square miles.
From the BLM: Trapper and frontiersman Jedediah Smith crossed the Salt Flats while returning to Utah from an expedition to California in 1827. John C. Fremont and his U.S. government-sponsored expedition crossed the heart of the Salt Flats in 1845 while trying to find a shorter overland route to the Pacific Ocean.
The next year Fremont’s route across the Salt Flats would become known as the Hastings Cutoff as part of the California Trail. Promoted by Lansford Hastings as a faster, easier route to California, Hastings Cutoff proved to be just the opposite for the Donner- Reed Party of 1846. What contributed to the party’s infamous winter survival in the Sierra Mountains was the delay the emigrants
experienced while crossing the Salt Flats. Their wagons became mired in mud just below the thin salt crust. Artifacts from the Donner-Reed Party, and other
emigrants that crossed the trail, are on display in the Donner-Reed Museum.
Site Information
Location (Interstate 80, mile 4, Utah)
Motor vehicle use is limited by seasonal closure during the spring when the salt is moist or has standing water on the surface. Closure dates may vary and will be posted by sign. For more information contact the Salt Lake Field Office.
Restrictions
No overnight camping on the salt flats. No driving vehicles on salt flats when wet or flooded.