Wyoming

‘The trail whispers’: Church historian joins Latter-day Saint youth on newly reopened 29-mile Wyoming pioneer trail

Published

3 months ago

July 18, 2025

Press Room

18 July 2025, 8:30 a.m. MDT

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has reopened a handcart trail for youth at its Wyoming Mormon Trail Historic Sites, allowing participants to pull handcarts along a 29-mile linear route that follows the original pioneer trail from Sixth Crossing over Rocky Ridge to Rock Creek Hollow.

After being halted due to the global pandemic and other logistical complications, this trail is available for the first time in a decade, said Elder Kyle S. McKay, a General Authority Seventy who serves as Church historian and recorder and executive director of the Church History Department.

Elder Kyle S. McKay, a General Authority Seventy who serves as the Church historian and recorder, speaks to youth during a pioneer trek at the Wyoming Mormon Trail Sites in July 2025. | Screenshot from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Elder McKay noted that walking these Wyoming trails enables members to connect with their ancestors and Church history, gaining insight into the challenges faced by handcart pioneers.

“This trail whispers,” he said. “There are those who have gone on before, and we listen to their stories, and we read their stories, and their testimony still reverberates in these sagebrush-covered hills.”

Elder Kyle S. McKay, a General Authority Seventy who serves as the Church historian and recorder, and his wife, Sister Jennifer McKay, walk with youth on a pioneer trek at the Wyoming Mormon Trail Sites in July 2025. | Screenshot from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Elder McKay and his wife, Sister Jennifer S. McKay, accompanied youth and leaders of the Hooper Utah Pioneer Trail Stake in walking the extended trail July 8-9.

“I know the potential that this place has for providing an amazing experience,” Elder McKay said. “And so when we were finally able to open the trail back up, I wanted to be here.”

A map shows the approximate locations of Sixth Crossing, Rocky Ridge and Rock Creek Hollow, historic locations that are part of the Church’s Wyoming Mormon Trail Sites near Lander, Wyoming. | Church News graphic

What drove them

Sixth Crossing is where the Willie Handcart Company encountered the first rescue wagons at the Sweetwater River amid early winter conditions in 1856.

A short time later, the Willie company sheltered at Rock Creek Hollow after the difficult ascent of Rocky Ridge — one of the highest points of altitude (7,300 feet) along the Oregon, Mormon and California trails — during a severe snowstorm.

Latter-day Saint youth from the Hooper Utah Pioneer Trail Stake climb the trail to Rocky Ridge during a pioneer trek at the Wyoming Mormon Trail Sites in July 2025. | Screenshot from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Sister McKay said walking the trail helps one better understand the pioneers’ faith and perspective.

“What drove the people to do what they did was their love for God and their willingness to follow a prophet, and that is what drives us. We love our Heavenly Father. We want to let God prevail,” she said. “You can feel and you can see God at work in the lives of His children.”

Youth from the Hooper Utah Pioneer Trail Stake stand at a monument as part of a pioneer trek at the Wyoming Mormon Trail Sites in July 2025. | Screenshot from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The trek experience

Robert Goates, site president of the Wyoming Mormon Trail Sites, encouraged stakes, wards and branches to bring their young women and men to have this “unique experience.”

“They can walk where their ancestors walked. They can see the landscape that they saw in the conditions in which they saw and experienced it,” Goates said. “This is sacred ground, but it becomes sacred for very personal reasons to those youth that feel the Spirit here, and feel a deeper relationship with their Savior.”

Latter-day Saint youth participate in a pioneer dancing activity as part of a handcart trek near Wyoming Mormon Trail Sites in July 2025. | Screenshot from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Blake Hansen, a youth participant, said, “You can feel the spirit when you’re walking along these trails.”

Fellow trekker Lydia Burrows said: “I have a pioneer ancestor that came across in the Willie Handcart Company, and it’s been really cool to walk in his footsteps and to see and be in the places that he was. It makes me feel so much more connected and to realize that they went through really hard things. But through Jesus Christ, they made it.”

Added Brayden Calvin, “Trek has helped me draw closer to Christ by wanting to help others. I’ve been able to help with other people. So, like serving others, and then also just being able to turn to Him when things get hard.”

Latter-day Saint youth from the Hooper Utah Pioneer Trail Stake participate in a pioneer trek at the Wyoming Mormon Trail Sites in July 2025. | Screenshot from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

How to make a trek reservation

Members are welcomed and encouraged to have the trek experience at the Wyoming Mormon Trail Sites, said Benjamin Pykles, director of the Church History Department’s Historic Sites Division.

“You are walking where they walked and having as authentic an experience as you can get,” he said. “Trekking is still happening, and you have great experiences. We have this new route. It’s arduous, but it’s exciting.”

Handcart trek reservations for 2026 open in September. Information for how to request a trek reservation, along with itinerary options, planning resources, frequently asked questions and more are available at ChurchofJesusChrist.org.