About Pony Express National Historic Trail (NHT) Backcountry Byway (BCB), West Access
The Pony Express National Historic Trail was a cross-country route used by young men on horses or mules to carry the nation's priority mail from Missouri to California from 1860 to 1861. The horse-and-rider mail system was the United States' most direct and practical means of east-west communication for a short period before completion of the transcontinental telegraph, delivering letters in the unprecedented time of only ten days. In many ways, the Pony Express was the overnight priority mail of its day; however, it never made a profit and went bankrupt by the end. 150 years later, visitors can closely follow the historic route of the Pony Express across Utah's west desert on a maintained BLM National Backcountry Byway gravel road, stopping a various station sites and interpretive displays along the way and experiencing a landscape that is virtually unchanged from the days of the Pony Express rider. There is also a BLM campground located at the Simpson Springs with twenty sites open year-round for $15 per night.
