I live in the remote desert of northwestern Utah. I'm about 80 miles from Salt Lake City.
ABSOLUTELY fill up your tank when it's down to half. And if you're unsure, refill when it's at 3/4. Many stretches of secondary highway still do NOT have reliable cell phone service. Towns may be small and not even have a mechanic, or a means to buy gas after hours. Many smaller towns no longer have motels; couldn't make a go of it.
Folks have given you some good ideas for southern Utah.
And if you find yourself in Salt Lake City, since you're on the Smith & Wesson forum, definitely go 40 miles north of there on Interstate 15 to Ogden, Utah.
See the John Browning Gun Museum. Also see the aircraft museum (can't recall the name) at Hill Air Force Base in Ogden.
The ill-fated Donner Party entered the area of Salt Lake City in 1846, a year before the Mormons arrived and settled in the area that became the city.
The Donner Party continued west, along what is now I-80.
You'll see signs for Saltair, a marina and concert hall. Gift shop there too.
It also gives you access to drive along the shoreline of the Great Salt Lake, as far as a big lump of dark stone called Black Rock.
Black Rock was a famous landmark for the pioneers who crossed in wagons.
The Oquirrh Mountains come almost to the shoreline, and the freeway doesn't have a lot of room to cross this area. The pioneers had the same problem: narrow passage. The rocks above are said to contain the names of those passing by from the 1840s to the 1870s. It's on private land, owned by the Kennicott Corp. that mines the area. They don't take kindly to trespassers.
There's a pullout on the shoreline of the Great Salt Lake worth stopping at, just past Black Rock and the 2100 Street overchange and exit. Be in the right lane.
Good place to see the lake. Hard to believe all that water, and not a fish in it. Magnificent sunsets on the water are common sights here.
Turn around and study the rock faces on the hillside behind you. Might spot an old etching. I haven't, but I'm still trying.
Big truck stop and gas stations at Exit 99. The city of Tooele is another 12 miles from here. HUGE, new racetrack there that accommodates motorcycles and cars for international competition.
If you're into car or motorbike racing, many events during the summer in Tooele (pronounced Twillah).
Near Tooele is Grantsville (about Exit 94 on I-80, but also accessible from Tooele). There's an excellent museum in Grantsville about the local history, and much of it about the Donner Party. You have to call to have it opened, but it's worth the arrangement if you can get it open.
Continuing west from Grantsville on I-80, get off at Exit 77 and go south. Note the mounds of salt from the Morton plant, taken from the Great Salt Lake, next to the freeway.
Go south on this secondary highway and you're in a remote area.
This valley, Skull Valley, is between the Stansbury Mountains to the East, and the very remote Cedar Mountains to the east.
You're in the area of the famous Hastings Cutoff. The Donner Party took this path. They got the last of their freshwater from Horseshoe Springs, about 9 miles south of I-80. Pull into the parking lot and walk around the springs. Many, many pioneers watered their oxen and got their last fresh water here, before crossing the steep Cedar Mountains to the west, in the distance.
On the other side of the Cedar Mountains there was no water. They had to travel about 100 miles to the next freshwater springs.
They had to cross the Bonneville Salt Flats, about 70 miles west of the exit you took to get to Horseshoe Springs.
From here, turn around and head back to Salt Lake City if you wish. Or continue west on I-80 about 75 miles to Wendover, Nevada. Many large casinos there, with full gambling and good buffets.
Wendover was also the site of Wendover Airfield, where many bombing crews trained during World War II. Among them, the crew of the Enola Gaye, that dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan.
There's a small museum at the airfield. The 1940s massive hangar still stands, as do some of the old, wooden barracks. Worth seeing for their history, and as a break from the casinos.
The above gives you an idea of what's to be seen directly west of Salt Lake City. Many residents think "there's nothing out there but wasteland" but they're ignorant of its history.
Interesting stories to be found if you know where to look.
I've been over Hastings Pass in the Cedar Mountains a number of times. Once in the dark. Spooky.
Many in the Donner Party perished in the deep snows of the Sierra Mountains of California/Nevada, in 1846-47. They ran out of food and some resorted to canniballism to survive.
Fascinating to stand at Horseshoe Springs, look west at the Cedar Mountains, and know that the Donner Party had the same view -- and some were doomed.
