About this place
Pioneers and gold rushers used the Hastings Cutoff from 1846 to 1850. It was meant to save 300 miles off the usual route to California through Idaho.
The Fremont expedition found the way in 1845. A year later Lansford W. Hastings promoted it hard as a shortcut to the Humboldt River in Nevada, and a great many people believed him.
It was not one. The route crossed 90 miles of the Great Salt Lake Desert with no water at all. It went over sand dunes and mud flats, in midsummer heat, with heavy wagons.
Donner-Reed Pass sits on the last 10 miles of that crossing, just before the fresh water at Donner Spring.
Many emigrant parties lost livestock and wagons right here, to the heat. It was the last stretch, and the worst.
The facts
- Cost
- Camping fee not confirmed
- Type
- Open area. Camp anywhere within it
- Managed by
- Bureau of Land Management
Getting there
Interstate 80 to Exit 4, the Bonneville Salt Flats. From there the Silver Island Mountain Backcountry Byway runs north for 25 miles.
Coordinates 41.00983333, -113.7765278
Open in Google Maps Agency page
What is near here
There is another spot of ours within reach, and some better-known places further out.
- Silver Island Mountain Back Country Byway (BCB) Directions
- Danger Cave Directions
- Pilot Peak Directions
Every distance on this page is the driving distance. A short distance can still take a long time. The road may be closed for the season, covered in snow, or washed out. Many of these roads are dirt. Plan your route before you leave home. Out here there is often no phone signal to look it up on the way.
Nearest town and supplies
- Wendover, UT Directions
Wendover is big enough that you’d normally expect fuel and somewhere to buy food. Nobody from here has been to check, so don’t count on it if you’re running low.
Have you been here?
Fees and access change, and the records do not always keep up. If you have been, tell us what you found.
Thank you, that is recorded. It helps the next person.
Add road notes for this site
The thing we cannot get from any government record is what the drive in is actually like. If you have done it, this is the most useful thing you can leave behind. We read everything before it appears, and we print a first name with it if you give one.
Thank you. A person will read it before it goes on the page.
Where this information comes from
The description on this page is ours. The facts in it, and the fee and facility details below it, come from the Bureau of Land Management’s own records, read in August 2026.