Pony Express Trail Hiking Recommendations

[Ryan Lambert]

I have developed a fascination with Utah's west desert, or more specifically, the Pony Express Trail between Simpson Springs and Callao, UT. I am in the final stages of preparing for a week long backpacking trip following that section of the trail. This will be my first solo trip. My route will parallel the Simpson Springs - Callao road from Simpson Springs CG to Fish Springs and back. I'm planning on doing it sometime in late September or early October, and taking about 7-10 days. I will be caching water along the route, and am thinking about hiking significant portions at night (I enjoy night hiking), which I think will work well with the flat and open terrain that has few navigational challenges.

My main concern is hiking around the wild horses. I've seen that they are not too shy around vehicles, so I wonder how they would react to a solitary hiker? Would it be enough to make noise or wear a bear bell to avoid inadvertently sneaking up on them? Has anyone here done anything like this?

 

[ImNotDedYet]

I've photographed "wild horses" that were rounded up by the BLM and placed on a large plot of land donated to a group that tries to train them and adopt them out. Those that are not trainable remain on the group's pasture, and this is where I photographed these horses. They were pretty skittish of humans getting within I'd say 30 yards/meters or so of them.

I also know people that photograph the mustangs in Sand Wash Basin here in CO, and they claim that you need a very long lens (600 - 800mm) to get most of their shots as those horses are also skittish. You could make noise if you'd like, but I'm pretty certain you're not going to be sneaking up on them very easily and they're going to keep their distance from you. Bear bells would be far too quiet to be of any use IMO.

Wild horses seem to travel in groups and there often seems to be one acting as a lookout while the others have their heads down, chowing. They don't appear to be like bears who can't be bothered to pay attention to their surroundings while feeding.

 

[Bob Wire]

I have developed a fascination with Utah's west desert, or more specifically, the Pony Express Trail between Simpson Springs and Callao, UT. I am in the final stages of preparing for a week long backpacking trip following that section of the trail. This will be my first solo trip. My route will parallel the Simpson Springs - Callao road from Simpson Springs CG to Fish Springs and back. I'm planning on doing it sometime in late September or early October, and taking about 7-10 days. I will be caching water along the route, and am thinking about hiking significant portions at night (I enjoy night hiking), which I think will work well with the flat and open terrain that has few navigational challenges.

My main concern is hiking around the wild horses. I've seen that they are not too shy around vehicles, so I wonder how they would react to a solitary hiker? Would it be enough to make noise or wear a bear bell to avoid inadvertently sneaking up on them? Has anyone here done anything like this?

I’d be much more concerned with snakes than horses. The biggest and most rattlesnakes I’ve ever encountered were in the Deep Creek range foothills.And I live in very snakey southern New Mexico

 

[Bob]

I’d be much more concerned with snakes than horses. The biggest and most rattlesnakes I’ve ever encountered were in the Deep Creek range foothills.And I live in very snakey southern New Mexico

I retesting ...hunted about 15 years all over the deep creeks.. .. only saw one rattler in all that scrambling and hiking....

 

[Bob Wire]

I retesting ...hunted about 15 years all over the deep creeks.. .. only saw one rattler in all that scrambling and hiking....

The ones I’ve seen were always low, before the first granite outcrops in the brush and near where streams hit the valley floor. I tend to think snakes are also not uniformly distributed but rather cluster in specific areas.