The Old Spanish Trail

This pullout sits on the Old Spanish Trail, the Santa Fe to Los Angeles route that crossed here for two decades before the first settler came. What ran it were pack mules, not wagons; the trail threaded canyons and fords no wheel could follow, which is why later Mormon companies with wagons struggled over the same ground. The traffic was not only goods. Traders carried Indigenous people, many of them Paiute children, to be sold in California — the trade the trail is least often remembered for, and should be.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Beaver — 10 mi
  A charming main street town with surprisingly good food
• Butch Cassidy Boyhood Home — 19 mi
  The restored Circleville cabin where the West's most famous outlaw spent his teens
• Panguitch — 23 mi
  A well-preserved pioneer town and gateway to Bryce Canyon
• Parowan Gap Petroglyphs — 28 mi
  An ancient rock art gallery hidden in a desert canyon

More markers nearby

• Southern Utah Expedition of 1849 — Winter Trail in Fremont Canyon — steps away
• John Christopher Armstrong — steps away
• Lee's Ranch Indian Raid — 8.8 mi
• Pioneer First Camp Ground — 9.4 mi