A 30,000-acre expanse of hard, white salt crust: the Bonneville Salt Flats are part of Tooele County and shape the region’s landscape. At the same time, they are used for a wide range of activities: land-speed racing, archery and running competitions, photography, videography, and scientific research projects. Competitions and creative and scientific work thus take place on the same expanse.
Salt, Dunes, and Alpine Heights
Other landscapes offer their own distinctive features. The Knolls Off-Highway Vehicle Special Recreation Management Area is one of Tooele County’s other recreation areas. It covers nearly 36,000 acres and includes varied terrain such as sand dunes, hills, and mud flats. Fivemile Pass is listed as another trail and recreation area in the county, suitable for OHVs, ATVs, motorcycles, mountain bikes, and horseback riding. The activities described are therefore quite different: at Knolls, the changing terrain takes center stage, while Fivemile Pass offers a variety of ways to get around.
The Onaqui Mountain Herd Management Area includes 240,153 acres of BLM land, as well as federally, state-, and privately owned land. For directions, the Bureau of Land Management recommends taking I-80 Exit 77, then UT-196 and Pony Express Road toward Simpson Springs. Conditions on unpaved roads can change; check them before you travel.
The Deseret Peak Wilderness offers a different elevation profile: it covers more than 25,212 acres of alpine terrain and includes 11,031-foot Deseret Peak, the highest summit in Tooele County. Here, salt crust and mud flats give way to an alpine landscape. Those interested in the region’s varied landforms can experience two very different natural settings.
Traces of Settlement and Travel
The history of the area spans different periods, too. The Stagecoach Inn near Camp Floyd was the first stop south of Salt Lake City on the Overland Stage Route and also a stop on the Pony Express route. In Fish Springs, a Pony Express and Overland Stage stop was also operating in the early 1860s. Both stops point to the importance of these routes, although their histories were not the same.
In Tooele Valley, the history of work is brought to life at Benson Grist Mill, a water-powered mill built in 1854. The Tooele Pioneer Museum offers an educational introduction to early pioneer history; its collection of Indigenous artifacts also includes arrowheads. The museum offers group tours by appointment. Artifacts from Danger Cave date from about 6000 BCE to 1300 CE and include stone tools, pottery, and baskets. This long span of time and variety of finds give the cave a different historical dimension from the buildings and travel routes.
Iosepa was a Polynesian settlement in Skull Valley that was inhabited from 1889 to 1917. A gathering is held there every year on Memorial Day. For visitors, the site thus connects the history of a former settlement with a recurring gathering.
Activities and Practical Information
Recreation options range from trails to specialized facilities. The Copper Canyon Trail in Tooele City is a paved, multiuse recreational trail with several access points. At the Black Rock Site, a marker identifies the Hastings Cutoff of the California Trail. Vehicles stop at the gate; from the gravel parking lot, the remaining 0.4-mile distance can be covered on foot or by bicycle. The two examples therefore differ in how visitors experience them: one is a paved trail with several access points, the other a short stretch from the parking lot.
The Utah Motorsports Campus is a 511-acre motorsports and events facility in Grantsville. Its facilities include areas for road racing, go-karting, rock crawling, a skid pad, off-road racing, and rallycross. Bonneville Seabase, by contrast, focuses on water activities: snorkeling and scuba diving among exotic saltwater fish are offered there. Hours are Thursdays and Fridays from 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Check the schedule before you arrive.
Wildlife viewing and landscape features add to the region’s appeal. Fish Springs is a 10,000-acre spring-fed wetland that provides important habitat for fish, migratory birds, and other wildlife. Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge can be reached from the east via about 80 miles of gravel roads; conditions can change. Plan your route accordingly and check road conditions before you travel.
Explore more destinations: Wendover, Tooele, Grantsville, Uintah County, Grand, Summit, Juab, Iron.
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