Transcontinental Railroad Back Country Byway

State: Utah
Length: 90.0 mi / 144.8 km
Time to Allow: 3 to 4 hours to drive the byway.
Restrictions: Portions of this byway may require a high-clearance type vehicle.

Although one might look at Utah’s northwestern region and see nothing but vast, isolated desert, a sharp observer would see a historical playground distinguished by the Transcontinental Backcountry Byway. Traversing the flat lands of the Great Salt Lake Desert, the byway stretches between the area just west of Golden Spike National Historic Site and the Utah-Nevada border, following the deserted Central Pacific Railroad grade lain in 1903.

Stories

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  Following the Transcontinental Railroad Back Country Byway

  Sep 26, 2008

  The Transcontinental Railroad Back Country Byway takes you on a 90-mile journey parallel to the old rail beds of the 1869 Transcontinental Railroad. This railroad was formed after an epic race, when the tracks laid by the Central Pacific Railroad connected with those laid by the Union Pacific Railroad at Promontory Summit north of the massive Great Salt Lake.