Last updated: June 9, 2026
Place
Pilot Peak
L. Kreutzer
Quick Facts
Location:
Pilot Peak, the highest peak in the Pilot Range, is about 19 miles north of West Wendover, Nev., near the border between Utah and Nevada. GPS coordinates for the highest point: 41.02130°N / 114.077. GPS coordinates for nearest point on Pilot Mountain Rd: 41.019918 -113.972862 (This location is at the ranch road turnoff to Donner Springs. Pilot Mtn Rd is open to the public, but the ranch road is not.) A Bureau of Land Management kiosk with interpretive exhibits about Pilot Peak is on the east side of I-80 at Exit 389, GPS 40.8438833333, -114.2074833333
Significance:
Pilot Peak was a notable landmark and immediate destination for westbound travelers crossing the Great Salt Lake Desert on the Hastings Cutoff in 1841-1850. At its foot they could reliably find plentiful fresh water and grass for their livestock.
Designation:
Historic Site on the California NHT.
MANAGED BY:
Amenities
5 listed
Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Parking - Auto, Parking - Bus/RV, Scenic View/Photo Spot, Wheelchair Accessible
During his 1845 expedition to map the Great Basin, explorer John C. Fremont sent his guide, Kit Carson, ahead across the Great Salt Lake Desert to scout water for his company. Finding springs along the foot of the great mountain at the west edge of the desert, Carson lit a beacon fire on its slope to signal Fremont to come ahead. “To the friendly mountain I gave the name of Pilot Peak,” Fremont wrote in his memoir.
Fremont’s men were not the first white Americans to visit Pilot Peak. The Bidwell-Bartleson Company, the first overland wagon train to California, passed by in 1841. Their faint wagon tracks around the south side of the mountain were observed by Edward Kern, artist and cartographer with Fremont’s expedition. A year later, when Lansford W. Hastings opened his famous cutoff across the Great Salt Lake Desert, mule-packer Edwin Bryant saw these wagon tracks, too.
Pilot Peak, looming over the desert at 10,716 feet elevation, guided water-famished travelers on the Hastings Cutoff to Donner Spring, one of several springs along the eastern slope of the mountain.
A Nevada state historical marker and a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) kiosk with interpretive exhibits about Pilot Peak are on the northeast side of I-80 at Exit 389, about 11 miles west of West Wendover, NV. Take the exit and turn northeast onto Pilot Road. This turnout provides a view of the south side of the mountain. The Hastings Cutoff crossed around the south end of Pilot Peak and continued over Silver Zone Pass, which I-80 crosses 7 miles farther west.
To view the mountain from the east as the emigrants saw it while approaching the salt flats, explore BLM’s Silver Island Mountains Backcountry Byway, a 54-mile unpaved loop into the Great Salt Lake Desert. To reach the byway, take I-80 Exit 4 toward Bonneville Speedway near Wendover, UT. Turn north at the end of the exit and drive past the fuel station. At the first Y intersection beyond the station, keep left. At the second Y, bear right onto Silver Island Rd. The byway is well signed and does not require 4-wheel drive when dry, although some sections may become wash boarded. Contact BLM at 801-320-8300 for maps and information.
Site Information
Location (Pilot Peak, the highest peak in the Pilot Range, is about 19 miles north of West Wendover, Nev., near the border between Utah and Nevada. GPS coordinates for the highest point: 41.02130°N / 114.077. GPS coordinates for nearest point on Pilot Mountain Rd: 41.019918 -113.972862 (This location is at the ranch road turnoff to Donner Springs. Pilot Mtn Rd is open to the public, but the ranch road is not.)
A Bureau of Land Management kiosk with interpretive exhibits about Pilot Peak is on the east side of I-80 at Exit 389, GPS 40.8438833333, -114.2074833333)