Discover Tooele: Salt Flats, Motorsports, and Pioneer History

Salt crust, a spring-fed wetland, alpine elevations, and traces of early travel routes: Tooele can be explored through its landscapes, motorsports, and history, each offering a different focus. If you’re looking for a hotel in Tooele, you can first consider whether nature, historic places, or motorsports will shape your trip. This makes it easier to match your plans with the specific access and scheduling conditions at each destination.

Salt Flats, Wetlands, and Alpine Terrain

The Bonneville Salt Flats are a 30,000-acre expanse of hard, white salt crust in Tooele County. The area is used for land-speed racing, archery and running competitions, photography, videography, and scientific research projects. The landscape and its uses come together in a distinctive way: alongside sporting competitions, the Salt Flats also attract visual and scientific interest.

The Knolls Off-Highway Vehicle Special Recreation Management Area covers nearly 36,000 acres of sand dunes, hills, and mud flats in the Great Salt Lake Desert; in Tooele County, it is one of several recreation areas. Fish Springs has a different character: this 10,000-acre spring-fed wetland provides important habitat for fish, migratory birds, and other wildlife. These two landscapes offer contrasting highlights—dunes, hills, and mud flats in one, and spring water and wetland habitat in the other.

The Onaqui Mountain Herd Management Area covers 240,153 acres of BLM land, as well as land owned by the federal government, the state, and private owners. The Deseret Peak Wilderness, meanwhile, encompasses more than 25,212 acres of alpine terrain. It includes 11,031-foot Deseret Peak, the highest summit in Tooele County. The acreage figures describe very different landscapes, while the summit’s elevation provides a specific point of reference.

Trails and Outdoor Activities

The Copper Canyon Trail in Tooele City is a paved, multi-use recreational trail with several access points. At the Black Rock Site, a landmark on the Hastings Cutoff of the California Trail, vehicles stop at the gate; the remaining 0.4 miles from the gravel parking area can be covered on foot or by bicycle. These details offer two different ways to orient yourself: the Copper Canyon Trail is defined by its paved surface and multiple access points, while at the Black Rock Site, the key detail is the remaining distance from the parking area.

Fivemile Pass Recreation Area is one of Tooele County’s other trails and recreation areas. Activities at Fivemile Pass Recreation Area include OHV riding, ATV riding, motorcycling, mountain biking, and horseback riding.

Historic and Cultural Sites

A Pony Express and Overland Stage station operated at Fish Springs in the early 1860s. The Stagecoach Inn near Camp Floyd was the first station south of Salt Lake City on the Overland Stage Route and also a Pony Express station. Together, the two sites illustrate different stops and connections in the history of these travel routes.

The water-powered Benson Grist Mill, built in 1854, stands in Tooele Valley. Danger Cave offers a different perspective on time: it contains artifacts dating from about 6000 BC to AD 1300, including stone tools, pottery, and baskets. Iosepa was a Polynesian settlement inhabited from 1889 to 1917; an annual gathering is held there on Memorial Day.

The Tooele Pioneer Museum offers educational exhibits on early pioneer history and displays a collection of Indigenous artifacts, including arrowheads. The museum offers group tours by appointment. For groups interested in early history, this is a specific planning consideration; it does not replace confirming arrangements for the desired visit.

Motorsports, Diving, and Practical Planning

Utah Motorsports Campus is a 511-acre motorsports and event facility in Grantsville, Utah. Its facilities include road racing, karting, rock crawling, a skid pad, off-road racing, and rallycross. Bonneville Seabase offers snorkeling and scuba diving among exotic saltwater fish. Sessions are offered Thursdays and Fridays from 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Check the schedule before traveling.

For the Onaqui Mountain Herd Management Area, the Bureau of Land Management recommends driving from I-80 via Exit 77, UT-196, and Pony Express Road toward Simpson Springs. Since conditions on unpaved roads can change, check them before you drive. Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge can be reached from the east via about 80 miles of gravel roads; road conditions there can also change. The approximate distance and access via gravel roads are important differences to consider when planning these drives.

Plan your drives and visits with the conditions listed for each destination in mind.

Discover more destinations: Wendover, Tooele, Grantsville, Davis, Rich County, Daggett County, Wayne County, Beaver County.

For the broader travel overview: Utah.