About this place
The Salt Lake Cut-Off is one of the many shortcuts that branched off the California, Mormon and Oregon Trails.
It ran northwest out of Salt Lake City and north of the Great Salt Lake, about 180 miles in all. It rejoined the California Trail near the City of Rocks, Idaho.
In 1848 members of the Mormon Battalion, coming home from California, turned a pack train route into a road a wagon could use.
Word spread fast. Here was a good road, with grass and water, running out of Salt Lake City and back to the California or Oregon Trail.
When the gold-crazy emigrants of 1849 heard about it, thousands of them detoured through Salt Lake City to buy supplies and livestock.
Mormons in Utah did very well out of the trade.
The facts
- Cost
- Camping fee not confirmed
- Type
- Open area. Camp anywhere within it
- Managed by
- Bureau of Land Management
Getting there
Take Interstate 84 as far as Exit 5, Curlew Junction. From there SR 30 and then SR 42 run west to Cedar Creek.
Coordinates 41.94338889, -113.0474167
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.
- Black Pine Cone Directions
- Black Pine Mountains High Point Directions
- California National Historic Trail (NHT), Bidwell-Bartelson Route Directions
- Bull Mountain Directions
- Black Pine 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
- Snowville, UT Directions
- Malad City, ID Directions
Malad City 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.