Day 13 outline of the day





Here is today’s chronological outline 

1. Grantsville Reservoir Campground — broke camp and resumed the Donner Party route.
2. Aragonite and Hastings Pass Road — followed the historic Hastings Cutoff into the Cedar Mountains.
3. Hastings Pass summit — reached the spectacular summit, photographed the surrounding country, and then retraced the route to I‑80.
4. Bonneville Salt Flats westbound rest area — viewed the salt flats and stopped so Annie could walk.
5. Wendover and West Wendover — crossed from Utah into Nevada; Garmin repeatedly attempted to send us south on Alternate US‑93 before we corrected the route.
6. I‑80 west to Exit 389/Pilot Peak — turned north onto Pilot Road.
7. Pilot Peak and the Hastings Cutoff interpretive kiosk — viewed the landmark that guided the Donner Party across the salt desert.
8. Pilot Valley and Pilot Road — drove south along the approximate Hastings Cutoff toward Donner Spring.
9. Approach toward Donner Spring — turned around after roughly ten miles because the spring is on private property, the county-road routing was uncertain, and continuing would have jeopardized tonight’s camp arrival.
10. Return to I‑80 west — abandoned the original plan to camp immediately at South Fork.
11. South Ruby Campground — selected as tonight’s destination because it positions us on the eastern side of the Ruby Mountains for tomorrow’s historically correct crossing of Overland Pass.

Donner Spring itself was not reached, but I  saw Pilot Peak, Pilot Valley, and the terrain through which the emigrants approached it.

As the day was drawing to close, I asked Chip to find me a campsite that would take us very close to the overland pass, that we would cross on day 14. He found self Ruby Lake camp, 100 some miles distant, mostly over unmarked dirt, and gravel roads. But the trek there was well worth it. The campsite was extraordinary.