"The road lies between high & immense rocky mountains, with not a particle of herbage or vegetation upon them, but being white & smooth upon their surface. Just opposite to where we encamped was one which struck us as particularly curious. It was a perfect face upon the highest cliff around... The road continued between these & around these rocky piles but the road itself was good. You can imagine among these massive piles, church domes, spires, pyramids, &c., in fact, with a little fancying you can see [anything] from the Capitol at Washington to a lovely thatched cottage. Four miles brought us to the coming in of the Mormon Road. Half [a] mile before striking it we passed through a narrow pass of rock, just wide enough for the wagons, & which evidently has been made by some adventurers before us. Three miles farther we came to another valley."

Trail to California, The Overland Journal of Vincent Geiger and Wakeman Bryarly.


City of Rocks, 1999

Margaret A. Frink, July 17, 1850

"This morning we started early, at half past five o'clock and nearly all day traveled over rough roads. During the forenoon we passed through a stone village composed of huge, isolated rocks of various and singular shapes, some resembling cottages, others stooples and domes. It is called 'City of Rocks' more suitable. It is a sublime, strange, and wonderful scene—one of nature's most interesting works. The Solt Lake road, which turned off between Dry Sandy and Little Sandy, and which we passed on the twenty-sixth day of June, rejoins our road at this point. The altitude of Pyramid City is five thousand nine hundred seventy-five feet, being the highest point between the top of the Bear River Range and where the emigrant road crosses the Sierra Nevada. Eight miles from Pyramid City we recrossed, going southwest, the forty-second parallel of latitude, which we had crossed going north, on the eighth day of June, near Fort Laramie.

ETSI, pg. 90

View of Granite Pass from City of Rocks, 1999

Byron N. McKinstry, August 3, 1850

"...Passed some high isolated granate hills or peaks, many of them rising from a level plain an hundred or more feet. They are in curious shapes resembling spires, towers, forts, &c. One on the road is well covered with names and surrounded with a grassy field. Springs issuing from near the foot. To the right these hills form a mountain range with high peaks of the same kind. The granate is much decomposed, the earth mostly composed of the debris and at the foot of the peaks quite coarse."

ETSI, pg. 90

"An entire range on our left, of volcanic hills, for about 15 miles; and on our right, similar formations for about 10 ms. When we entered a very extraordinary valley, called the 'City of Castles.' A couple of miles long, and probably a mile broad, A light grey decripitating granite, (probably altered by fire) in blocks in every size, from that of a barrel to the dimensions of a large dwelling house; groups, Masses on Masses, and Cliffs; and worn, by the action of ages of elementary affluences, into strange and romantic forms. The travellers had marked several large blocks, as their fancy dictated the resemblance to houses, castles, &c. On one was marked (with tar) "NAPOLEAN'S CASTLE." Another "CITY HOTEL," &C. We nooned among these curious monuments of nature. I dined hastily, on bread & water, and while others rested, I explored and sketched some of these queer rocks. A group, on left of the trail, resembled gigantic fungi, petrified, other clusters were worn in cells and caverns: and one, which contrasted with the size and h[e]ight of the adjacent rocks, seemed no larger than a big chest, was, to my astonishment, when close to it, quite large, hollow. With an arch'd entrance, and capable of containing a dozen persons. This, from its peculiar shape, I named the "Sarcophagus Rock."

ISHS Reference Series #924

Richard Augustus Keen, June 22, 1852

"Camped at Steeple or Castle Rocks here is a sublime scenery to the Romantic the Rocks resemble an old City of Ruins there are thousands of names here I registered Mine on a large Rock which we named the Castle Rock hotel."

ISHS Reference Series #924

From Photography and the American Scene by Robert Taft; 1938. MacMillan Co., NY

Directions: Hwy 27 to Oakley. Follow signs going southeast.

Must See: City of Rocks National Reserve managed by the National Park Service and the Idaho Department of Parks & Recreation.

Current Observations/Journal Entry:

"Tuesday, 6/29/99. We are nearing City of Rocks at 6:14 p.m.; it is 76 degrees, and we are traveling southwest. We spy two deer with velvet on their antlers near the town of Elba. When we reach the City of Rocks, we are rushing a bit to get photos in some decent light and also get to Burley so we don't lose our hotel rooms! It seems to me we are all ready for dinner and to be out of the car a while! (In fact, we have a bit of a minor disagreement over the temperature inside the car!) We've spent 10 to 12 hours in the car as we make our way to these sites. Twin Sisters is one of the rock formations visible from the road between peaks. Pinnacle Pass passes behind Castle Rock. Dolphin Rock and Bathtub Rock are cool! There are Pinon trees, cliff swallows, and woodpecker holes in the trees, and jackrabbits—it all smells and looks wonderful. I wish we didn't have to get back into the car!"