East Canyon Campsites

The trail that runs through East Canyon was not the Mormons' invention — it was the Donner-Reed party's, cut in the summer of 1846. Bound for California by an untested shortcut, they spent thirteen brutal days hacking a wagon road out of the Wasatch from Henefer toward the valley, and those lost days are what left them trapped in the Sierra snow that winter. In 1847 Brigham Young's companies simply followed the trace, camping along this creek on their way west. East Canyon State Park preserves the corridor now, water where wagons once ground through.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Utah Olympic Park — 11 mi
  The ski jumping and bobsled venue from the 2002 Winter Olympics
• Emigration Canyon — 13 mi
  The final stretch of trail the Mormon pioneers took into the valley
• This Is The Place Heritage Park — 14 mi
  A living history village at the mouth of Emigration Canyon
• Natural History Museum of Utah — 14 mi
  A world-class museum built into the foothills above Salt Lake City

More markers nearby

• Mormon Flat — 2.9 mi
• Little Emigration Canyon — 3.8 mi
• Ephraim Hank's Pony Express Station — 8.2 mi
• Memories at Mountain Dell — 8.4 mi