Golden Spike National Historical Park — Attraction in Four Corners States

Short version: If you're in the area, really into train history or anything in between this is probably a bucket list item. If you're more into NPS places like Yosemite this may not be worth the extra drive. (Especially since Utah has the Mighty 5 National Parks.)

I am obsessed with our National Parks and Historical Sites...so I have a pretty high standard when it comes to where I visit. When I was staying just North of Salt Lake I decided that I would go see the spot that was such a turning point in the expansion to the West Coast. I warn you it is a little out of the way. If you're coming from Salt Lake City you will drive up Interstate 15 for a good hour (almost to Idaho) and then another 30-40 minutes west within 20 miles of the North side of the Great Salt Lake.

The cool thing is that once you get there since its out in the middle of nowhere you get a chance to really see their demonstration trains up close when they bring them out and you can talk to the Rangers all you want.

They bring the two working trains out one at a time throughout the day and once a day they bring out both and recreate the famous photo of the two trains together facing each other.

The gift shop / education center is small but in a quaint way. The Rangers were awesome and were more than willing to let everyone get all the train photos that visitors wanted.

And a little off topic...for anyone saying that they paid $20 bucks for an entrance fee do yourself a favor and just buy the Interagency Annual Pass. 80 bucks for an entire year that gets you into all National Park Sites. Best money you...

I went to Golden Spike twice in March with my young children. It was very quiet, middle of nowhere, very relaxing for me type of place. The rangers are very knowledgeable and friendly. The rangers are also very nice and patient, especially so with 3 and 5 year old children who raise their hands to ask questions in the middle of the tour who then forget their question.

This is a whole day trip from Salt Lake City for us, so we packed a lunch and had a leisurely picnic here, and then we walked around the grounds by the carts and rail road. There were no mosquitoes or other pests here bothering us, except there were a ton of box elder bugs. The early spring might have been to thank for the lack of mosquitoes, I suppose, and I'll keep that in mind for when I plan future visits. Of course, they don't start the reenactments or put the trains on display until May, so that is another consideration.

My children loved it, and since our visits here (within the same 7 days) my 3 year old child has been requesting that we go to Golden Spike for her birthday. I'm sure I'll indulge her. It's a very relaxing trip and place to just hang out.

I recommend doing the auto tours. The west tour was closed, but the east tour was open, and it offered interesting scenery.

Update: I've returned to this place five times, and loved each visit. The rangers are consistently awesome and helpful. My children are still big fans as well.

10/10...

We arrived at 1:10 pm. The building housing the two locomotives closed at 1:30. The lady in the visitor center shared that with us, so we were able to make it to the building to see the engines!!

The 20 minute movie in the visitor center was quite informative as are the signs scattered around the park.

The park ranger in the maintanence building was quite informative. There were no blueprints of the original 2 locomotives, so Walt Disney and another engineer were hired to build them based on black and white photos and descriptions written by attendees. The end result are two massive steam locomotives that should last a very long time.

4-5 months out of the year the locomotives are housed in the maintenance building where the are polished, refurbed and inspected. Wheels are removed and repainted, tubing is removed/replaced. Every moving part is looked at for wear! 2 fulltime engineers, a machinist and a never ending legion of railroad volunteers keep everything in great working order!!

Two grand daughters enjoyed the visit as did my adult...