Old Spanish Trail

[Greatbasinguide]

I am planning a horse and mule trip from Los Angeles to Santa Fe on the Old Spanish Trail. How does this relate to Campers? Well, most of it will be car camping, and I will have my poptop. The trip will be a promotion for Backcountry Horsemen of America and for the Old Spanish Trail. Many of the 14,000 odd members of of BCHA do use pop top campers..... I am sure that many of you know more about the areas around the Old Spanish Trail than I, particularly in Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. I am always interested in new facts and ideas, please share if you wish. I know that Stew will meet us somewhere along the way with beer. We can always use more beer. I have created a website for the trek at: OSTTREK Now I am going to try to insert an image here, This is my truck, camper and horse Trailer with Robinson Jeffers, my horse (my mule is named Ed Abbey, seems to fit him) at 5,000 feet elevation above Cuyama in Santa Barbara County CA. If it looks cold, it was, we had snow over night.. This was November 2 2012, 50 miles from the ocean.

 

[ski3pin]

The Old Spanish Trail, it sounds like a great adventure! We have only been on sections of it and not really to visit the trail. The one time we did was near Enterprise, UT where the Death Valley 49ers broke off and took the shortcut. We had to visit the small monument there.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Yep sure will be a great adventure.Please keep us posted with at least photos of your travels.
Good luck on your trip.
Frank

 

[Dughlas Stiubhart]

It does sounds like a great adventure, GBG! I'll be sure to meet you out there in NV or UT somewhere.

Interestingly, my kinsman, Henry Chapman Skinner, was also on the Old Spanish Trail in '49 but he didn't take the "shortcut" into Death Valley with his young friend, William Manly. They did meet up later in '50 after Manly and John Rogers had managed to extract the Bennett-Arcan group off the valley floor and up and over the Panamint Range, the Argosy Range, and eventually to LA.

Of course, Harry Ward simply drove his wagon and family south down the flat playa and out of Death Valley where he again found a branch of the OST, becoming the only of those trapped in DV to drive a wagon the entire route.


H C Skinner

Yes, be sure to keep us posted as your plans and trip progress.

 

[ski3pin]

Here's where HC made the right decision.

 

[Dughlas Stiubhart]

Here's where HC made the right decision.

Very cool, 3pin! How far is that marker from Mountain Meadows?

 

[Dughlas Stiubhart]

I ran across this well shot-up Old Spanish Trail marker well north of the San Rafael Swell in UT. This must be close to the most northern section of the trail.



Miles south of the marker is the Wedge Overlook (good camping) and the Little Grand Canyon, the geological obstacle the the trail went way north to avoid.

 

[ski3pin]

Very cool, 3pin! How far is that marker from Mountain Meadows?

It is just north of the massacre site, not far.

 

[Dughlas Stiubhart]

It is just north of the massacre site, not far.

Yes, another kinsman of mine, Alexander Fancher, passed through there without incident in '50 and '53 while following the Old Spanish Trail to California (and back}; however, he ran into a bit of a scrape at Mountain Meadows a few years later in '57.

Fancher's 1857 scrape at Mountain Meadows, UT: