In 1846, Lansford W. Hastings led about 60 emigrant wagons on a route that diverged from the California Trail near Fort Bridger, Wyoming. After encountering almost impassable difficulties in the Wasatch Mountains via Weber Canyon, he left word for the Donner-Reed party not to attempt that canyon. After finding his written warning, the Donner-Reed party sent James Reed to seek Hastings’ advice and then chose to reach the valley of the Great Salt Lake by way of Emigration Canyon. Bringing their wagons to the valley took 18 days of cutting and hacking trees and brush. From there they followed Hastings’ trail across the Western Desert and the Salt Flats east of present-day Wendover, traveling for three days without water for themselves or their livestock, abandoning wagons and equipment, and finally reaching fresh-water springs near Pilot Peak. Still on Hastings’ route, they crossed at Silver Zone Pass, took his long detour around the Ruby Mountains, and rejoined the California Trail at the site of the present-day National California Emigrant Trail Interpretive Center at Elko, Nevada. Delayed by following Hastings’ route, the Donner-Reed party was trapped by October snows at what is now called Donner Pass and spent a horrible winter in survival mode before being rescued in the early spring of 1847.