Feature > Backcountry Adventures
California or Bust!
Hot Time Tonight
story by Angela Titus
photography by Peter Massey & Bushducks
Imagine traveling the daunting distance from Kansas City to Sacramento...on foot. Now imagine that same journey with no cars, no roads or bridges, no hotels or restaurants, no reliable maps-and certainly no GPS. Over rugged mountains and barren deserts through hostile Indian territory, the only mode of transport is horsepower-of the animal variety. The only means of navigation is the sun. Sound impossible? In the 1830s and 1840s, tens of thousands of emigrants from the east coast risked their lives to claim free fertile farmland in Oregon or strike gold in California. The Oregon Trail, established by farmers for westward migration, is the original and best known of all emigrant trails. The California Trail also is well known. A few settlers, diverging from the Oregon Trail and heading to California, established this southerly track.
In July 1846, Jacob Donner made a fateful decision. He led the Donner party on a shorter, less-traveled version of the California Trail. The legendary, disastrous expedition, acting on advice from a trail guide who had never attempted the route, trekked through Utah’s Great Salt Desert. The unfortunate group faced hardships day after day. They attempted to cross the towering Sierra Nevada Mountain Range in late October, but early snow trapped them in the mountains for the winter. Rescuers found the debilitated party in March, half of them having perished. Many of the survivors had resorted to cannibalism to stay alive.
Fandango Pass
Past emigrants and today’s four-wheelers on Fandango Pass have seen this expansive view over Upper Alkali Lake, Surprise Valley, and into Nevada.
An Applegate Trail marker near Fandango Pass. It records one emigrant party’s experience on this trail back in 1849.
As a result of such events, the California Trail was little used. In the mid-1840s, a few migrants settled in the Sacramento Valley. During the gold rush, traffic along the trail increased, with an estimated 30,000 to 45,000 emigrants traversing it that year.
Terrain crossed by the Donner-Reed expedition still can be explored today, with dozens of sidetracks off the loop also of interest. Silver Island Mountains Loop Trail near Wendover, Utah, crosses the Donner-Reed Pass at its north end. This is an easy but remote track that illustrates the hardships the Donner party faced. Though the scenery is beautiful and unusual, it must have seemed hellacious to the party, as they struggled through the soft muddy sand flats.
The Applegate Trail is an off-shoot of the Oregon and California trails. The Applegate family blazed this arduous trail after two family members drowned crossing the Columbia River. The Applegate’s swore they would find a faster and safer route into Oregon. But after a disastrous journey for the first emigrant party to use the track, Oregon settlers condemned the route. It crossed treacherous Indian territory over rugged and barren terrain, and it was longer than the original. After emigrants abandoned the route, the only subsequent traffic came from Oregon prospectors rushing south to California.
Surprise Valley Trail
Today, herds of mustangs roam Surprise Valley. The herds originated from a quarter horse turned out by a local rancher.
During long journeys, emigrants were happy to find water. This is a hot-spring soaking area beside Warm Creek.
Portions of the historic Applegate Trail can be driven today. Part of the original trail is on the Surprise Valley Trail in the extreme northeastern corner of California. This tricky piece of road climbs up and over a rocky ridge embedded with large boulders. Wild mustangs still can be seen roaming the area.
The nearby Fandango Pass 4WD Trail, with stretches of historical markers, also crosses the original Applegate Trail. Many settlers and miners lost their lives here, attempting to cross the Warner Mountains.
Henness Pass
Henness Pass Road overlooks the rugged peaks of the Sierra Buttes.
At this scenic spot, the Middle Yuba River flows into Milton Reservoir.
A short hike off Henness Pass Road leads to these waterfalls in the Middle Yuba River’s Box Canyon.
Henness Pass Road presented migrants with a better way to cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It crossed into California farther north than Donner Pass, avoiding harsh terrain around Truckee Lake. The pass was such a good alternative, it was later built into a much-improved wagon road.
Most of the original route of Henness Pass Road also can be driven today. For high-clearance four-wheel-drive vehicles, the road is a long, easy, and scenic drive. Along the trail are many historic emigrant camps and stage sites. Although most are now little more than historical markers, the large number of the sites reveals how busy the road must have been.
Lesser known is the Mormon migration. This religious group pressed west searching for a home free of persecution and settled in Salt Lake Valley. Soon overpopulation forced settlement expansion, forcing the Mormons to blaze a route across south Utah-until they encountered Hole-in-the-Rock Pass: a 1,200-foot gorge to the Colorado River. With no feasible way around the gorge, they decided to pass through it, which resulted in some amazing feats of engineering. The Mormons blasted boulders, widened crevice walls, and graded a path, creating a series of roads along the cliff edges. One 50-foot wooden road was tacked onto the sheer face of the gorge by chiseling holes into the rock and inserting log supports. The Mormons originally planned six weeks for the expedition. It lasted more than six months.
Hole-in-the-Rock Trail
You can see the Colorado River through this cutting made during the Mormon emigration of 1879-1880. |
An early view of Hole-in-the-Rock. |
A long, interesting four-wheel-drive trail in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument features sections of the historic Mormon Pioneer Trail. Slickrock sections in the trail’s last five miles require short, steep climbs and careful wheel placements. It’s only a short scramble at the end of the trail to the Hole-in-the-Rock site. The enormity of the work of the early pioneers is still obvious. Scrapes from the wagons that descended through Hole-in-the-Rock are still evident on the sides of the passage.
Silver Island Mountains Loop
Floating Island appears to hover above the salt and mud flats of the Great Salt Desert.
We cross Donner-Reed Pass with the Pilot Mountains in the distance.
A challenging 4WD section of the Hole-in-the-Rock Trail.
An old cabin and corral still stand along Hurricane Wash at Willow Tank.
Get more information on driving these trails and hundreds more in “Backcountry Adventures: Northern California, 4WD Trails: Northern Utah” and “4WD Trails: Southwest Utah” guidebooks. Detailed trail directions, GPS coordinates, maps, and color photos ensure you’ll never get lost. Fascinating descriptions reveal little-known facts about ghost towns, mines, and other amazing sites on the trails. Purchase these trail guides at www.4wheelparts.com, 4Wheel Parts retail stores, and local book and map stores. For more information, call 866-SUV-TRIP.
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