The Pony Express National Historic Trail was a cross-country route used by
young men on horses or mules to carry the nation's priority mail from Missouri
to California from 1860 to 1861. The horse-and-rider mail system was the
United States' most direct and practical means of east-west communication for
a short period before completion of the transcontinental telegraph, delivering
letters in the unprecedented time of only ten days. In many ways, the Pony
Express was the overnight priority mail of its day; however, it never made a
profit and went bankrupt by the end.

150 years later, visitors can closely follow the historic route of the Pony
Express across Utah's west desert on a maintained BLM National Backcountry
Byway gravel road, stopping a various station sites and interpretive displays
along the way and experiencing a landscape that is virtually unchanged from
the days of the Pony Express rider.

There is also a BLM campground located at the Simpson Springs with twenty
sites open year-round for $15 per night.

The Pony Express National Historic Trail was a cross-country route used by young men on horses or mules to carry the nation's priority mail from Missouri to California from 1860 to 1861. The horse-and-rider mail system was the United States' most direct and practical means of east-west communication for a short period before completion of the transcontinental telegraph, delivering letters in the unprecedented time of only ten days. In many ways, the Pony Express was the overnight priority mail of its day; however, it never made a profit and went bankrupt by the end. </p>150 years later, visitors can closely follow the historic route of the Pony Express across Utah's west desert on a maintained BLM National Backcountry Byway gravel road, stopping a various station sites and interpretive displays along the way and experiencing a landscape that is virtually unchanged from the days of the Pony Express rider. </p>There is also a BLM campground located at the Simpson Springs with twenty sites open year-round for $15 per night.

Bird's eye view of the park

Pony Express National Historic Trail (NHT) Backcountry Byway (BCB), West Access

Flanked on the east by the Great Salt Lake Desert and on the west by the Deep
Creek Valley, the Deep Creek Mountains are the highest landmark in all of
western Utah. As an isolated “island” ecosystem and the fourth highest range
in the Great Basin, the “Deeps” dominate the Great Salt Lake Desert in
altitude, sheer mass, and biotic richness. From a barren landscape of alluvial
outwash and playa basins, two 12,000 foot peaks rise 7,800 feet above the
desert floor transitioning through sagebrush-grassland benches, pinyon-juniper
forest, evergreen and aspen forests, and alpine meadows to form nine perennial
streams and numerous canyons that twist through massive granite formations or
quartzite cliffs.

Flanked on the east by the Great Salt Lake Desert and on the west by the Deep Creek Valley, the Deep Creek Mountains are the highest landmark in all of western Utah. As an isolated “island” ecosystem and the fourth highest range in the Great Basin, the “Deeps” dominate the Great Salt Lake Desert in altitude, sheer mass, and biotic richness. From a barren landscape of alluvial outwash and playa basins, two 12,000 foot peaks rise 7,800 feet above the desert floor transitioning through sagebrush-grassland benches, pinyon-juniper forest, evergreen and aspen forests, and alpine meadows to form nine perennial streams and numerous canyons that twist through massive granite formations or quartzite cliffs.

Pony Express National Historic Trail (NHT) Backcountry Byway (BCB), West Access

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Nearby Parks

Scott's Basin