Pony Express Trail (Utah) 643a

These and nearby pictures are from exploring the BLM backway called the "Pony Express Trail". My main reason for wanting to explore this route was that it covered a large part of very remote mountain and desert area in the Great Salt Lake Desert that was relatively easily accessible over well-marked graded gravel and dirt roads (which wasn't entirely true, see nearby pictures). I wasn't particularly interested in the actual "Pony Express" dynamics of the route, though it was interesting to read that something that is an ingrained part of our imagery of the West really represented a short-lived financial failure. There are many good descriptions of the Pony Express available over the web, including one on a site operated by the state of Utah.

The route is a 100+ mile graded dirt road with no services, so driving it is something that one should spend some time preparing for. But, in good weather it is easily driven in a standard passenger car (in good mechanical shape, with plenty of water and gas), and is well worth the effort just in terms of the expanse of scenery viewed.

There are multiple places for starting the route -- I chose a turnoff from Utah 36 that is a few miles north of Vernon.