dust and starlightUtah
Simpson Springs
An old Pony Express stop in Utah's west desert, inside the BLM's Onaqui Mountain Herd Management Area. The wild horses here are the Onaqui herd, on public land. Stay at least 100 feet back, more at the water, and let a long lens do the walking.
Part of Great Basin and Utah's West Desert, in Utah, with its map and every photo from the region.
- Photographs
- 6
- Made
- March – September 2026
- Months
- March and September
- In the collections
6 photos
Field notes
When to go
Our frames here are from one September 2026 visit, on the way home from Great Basin, when the Onaqui herd was at the water at Simpson Springs. We've been out here many times, though, and we usually find the horses around Erickson Pass or Government Creek rather than at the springs. They range across the whole management area, so no spot is a sure thing.
Access and rules
Simpson Springs sits on the Pony Express Trail Backcountry Byway, a maintained BLM gravel road across the west desert, inside the Onaqui Mountain Herd Management Area, with no fence, trail or gate. You don't need a high-clearance vehicle unless conditions are bad, and we wouldn't recommend driving it then; in our experience it's well maintained in Juab County and gets rough in Tooele County, depending on season and weather. BLM's suggested route from Salt Lake City is I-80 west to exit 77, south on SR-196 toward Dugway, then dirt roads south to the Pony Express road and west to Simpson Springs. As of 2026, BLM's Onaqui Mountain HMA page asks visitors to stay at least 100 feet from any wild horse and never pet or feed them.
Our story
We took the long way home from a Great Basin trip in September 2026, down the old Pony Express road across the west desert, and found the Onaqui herd at the water: a band with a foal keeping pace at the edge, a roan trotting past with the wind in its mane, two horses on the pond bank with the butte behind them, and two more meeting nose to nose at the water, that last one made from the road at 378mm. A few minutes up the road, a pronghorn buck stopped in the dry grass to look us over.
This is BLM public land with no fence, no trail and no gate, and it belongs to whoever visits it as much as it does to us. Every frame here was made from a distance, with a long lens doing the work instead of getting closer.
On film
Our YouTube channelNearest places
All placesAs the crow flies, from the center of Simpson Springs to the center of each.
