Pony Express trail · Station VII of 12 covered
Simpson Springs
The most reliable water for fifty miles in any direction, and the best preserved station on the whole Utah stretch.
Position 40.0378, -112.7864 · Tooele County, Utah
Simpson Springs is a spring, a former Pony Express station, a former Civilian Conservation Corps camp and a campground, all on the same patch of ground in southeastern Tooele County. That layering is the point: people kept coming back here because the water did not fail.
The station building standing today is a reconstruction, built on the original site using the original stone where it could be found. It is the one place along this stretch where you can see what a station actually looked like rather than reading it off a plaque.
There is a BLM campground here with vault toilets and no water supply, which surprises people given the name. The spring is real but it is not a tap. Fill up in Tooele or Delta before you come out.
West of Simpson Springs the road drops toward the old riverbed and the country empties out completely. This is the last place with anything resembling a facility until you reach Callao, about sixty miles on.
This is remote, unpaved country with no fuel, no water and thin phone coverage for a hundred miles. Carry more water than you think you need, tell somebody your route, and do not attempt the crossing in a low car after rain. The BLM manages most of the road; call the Salt Lake Field Office for current conditions rather than trusting any page, including this one.