The Pony Express Trail cuts off to the left (south) from Hwy 73 (Eagle Mountain road) just after Fivemile Pass (very popular ATV area). The sign says Faust. The road is dirt most of the way to Faust, about 10 miles.
Just after Faust, which is really just two houses and a railroad crossing, turn left on Hwy 36 (comes south out of Tooele), drive a couple blocks, and turn right at the Pony Express Trail sign.
This and the next sign are at the turnoff.
I'm not sure what the deal is with this compound, but it's a collection of some very nice homes on. gated road in the middle of nowhere, just off the Pony Express Trail road.
This is the Simpson Springs Pony Express stop. There's an outhouse and campground here. The building is a recreation of the original stop. Stones from the original building are in a protected area across the road as part of a cabin that a pioneer built for his wife. Unfortunately, she died during childbirth and never lived in the cabin.
This is what the Pony Express Trail road looks like for most of it's 90 or so miles.
And this is what it looks like from ground level.
Just past Simpson Springs, we met up with this herd of wild horses grazing beside the road. They're part of the 450-horse Onaqui herd of mustangs and are almost always present around this area.
I tried to take an overhead shot, but they were not crazy about the drone, so I brought it down before they ran away.
They weren't too shy with two or three cars of people stopping to gaze at them.
This foal is nursing. There were at least two foals. One was lying down, and we worried he might be dead, but he jumped up when I turned the drone on.
There were a handful of horses grazing by themselves.
Drive about 45 miles west of Simpson Springs and you arrive at Fish Springs. Here's Chieko with the Fish Springs points in the background.
Here are the springs. The birds are in the water on the right. I'm not sure what the blue/turquoise water on the left is. It's pretty, but I don't think it's conducive to birds and plants.
The ponds have a lot of coots and ducks. These pelicans were the only large waterfowl we saw. We did see a couple of hawks, and, of course, crows.
The pelicans flew off when I tried to get a little closer, and they were then joined by what I think is a heron, and a bunch of seagulls.
These ducks (or maybe coots) took off when I drove past. The water is ripply, because it's starting to get windy. Driving home on I-80, we hit some pretty heavy rain near Grantsville, and I understand from the news that it may turn to snow overnight.
I'm quite sure this cow, and a couple others nearby, are pregnant. A few young calves are already wandering around.
These are the remains of a Pony Express stop near Gold Hill. After we stopped here, we drove through Gold Hill, where the remains of two houses that burned to the ground in a brush fire are still prominent right in the center of the town. Gold Hill is a partially occupied ghost town. At the main intersection, the only intersection, actually, we weren't sure which way to go to get to Wendover, until we found a faded, tattered, hand-written sign that said, "<-- --="" 55="" miles.="" p="" wendover="">
Wendover was also a veritable ghost town. With all the casinos closed, almost no people people or cars are in town. We stopped at the Pilot Station, which has always been hopping with people when we've been here before, but only one other customer was in the store this time. Even the parking lots to the casinos had cement and other barricades across them.
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