Photograph: Copyright © 1971 Roy D. Tea

Made 1971, Skull Valley, Utah.

This photograph was taken above Skull Valley several miles south of the previous one. Having proceeded south into Skull Valley far enough to skirt the wetlands, the Hastings Trail is seen here angling sharply back to the northwest as it leaves the area of Hope Wells. Hastings Pass through the Cedar Mountains is the low area in about the center of the skyline to the right of the trail's line. A tiny flow from Redlum Spring in the foothills of the Cedars was the only water known to emigrants between here and Donner Spring nearly 80 miles beyond.

Beneath the airplane is about the place where Eliza P. Donner Houghton of the Donner Party describes her mother piecing together a note left by Hastings that appeared to have been shredded by birds: "2 days--2 nights--hard driving--cross--desert--reach water." (See Roy Tea's article on the Hastings Trail from Grantsville to Donner Spring in our Members' Pages section).