Trappers Loop and Snowbasin

I'm baaaack! It's been a long time, but I've finally had the time to write up a new post. Today, I'll be discussing the history of the Trappers Loop highway in northern Utah and the roads connecting to the nearby Snowbasin ski area. Snowbasin is located in the snow-covered mountains in the background of the photo below, which was taken from southbound Trappers Loop Road (SR 167):

One of my all-time favorite road photos.

However, to start off, we'll need to go back to before Snowbasin even existed. As I mentioned briefly above, the Ogden Valley - including the communities of Huntsville, Eden, and Liberty - was a fairly isolated place in winter, and SR 39 through Ogden Canyon was the only original state highway connecting it to the outside world. While 39 is an awesome scenic drive, it generally isn't a great idea to have only one road in or out of someplace, and another state highway connection to the valley was probably seen as a good idea.

The ideal candidate for that connection was an old Shoshone trail connecting the Ogden River west of modern Huntsville to the Weber River near what is now Mountain Green. The trail was later used by early white settlers and fur trappers - hence the first half of its ultimate name of "Trappers Loop". The "loop" part is because these trappers would loop back and forth along the same trail, and not because the trail itself was a loop. Unfortunately, the name is not original, and was certainly not in widespread use until at least the late 1960s after it was published in some editorials in Ogden newspapers. 

At any rate, in 1935 the state legislature designated SR 85 along this corridor (note that "route 5" was the legislative designation for US 30S east of Ogden):

Route 85. From Huntsville on route 39 to Mountain Green on route 5.

According to a Deseret News article from 1990, the WPA conducted a road survey in this area in 1934, but this was not the road that was ultimately built. Neither did it directly follow the old Shoshone trail. Regardless, a dirt road connecting Huntsville and Mountain Green first appeared on the state highway map in 1935, and it was first labeled as 85 in the 1938 edition, suggesting it was probably completed around then.

USRC/Gousha, 1938.

That is about a mile east of the modern SR 167, by the way. SR 85 began at US 30S at Mountain Green (not west of it, like today's road) and proceeded northeast up the Dry Creek canyon, then crossed the pass and went directly into downtown Huntsville to end at SR 39. Also of note is that some of the surrounding road alignments were different. Although US 30S was exactly where Old Highway Road is now in Mountain Green, SR 39 went directly through central Huntsville along First Street, which can be seen in the map below:

USGS (Huntsville), 1955.

SR 85 would have come into Huntsville directly from the south along what is now 7450 East (right by that "4902" label). It's not clear exactly how it ultimately connected to 39, but based on a 1940 census map (which I won't bother putting here as it shows pretty much the same thing) it appears 85 immediately turned north on 7500 East and proceeded up to 39 at First St.

By the way, much of that alignment is no longer drivable, for the same reason 39 no longer goes through Huntsville itself: in 1957, Pineview Dam was raised to its modern height, and much of the land south of Huntsville was flooded. However, during times of low lake levels, the old alignments can still be seen, with old 39 at left across the mud flats and old 85 to the east, directly south of the "Huntsville" label on the satellite image below. 

Google Earth, 2018.

However, 85 didn't last long enough to be affected by those realignments - the route was decommissioned in 1945 - only ten years after it was created. The road itself would continue to serve as a seasonal, locally-maintained dirt road.

Around this same time was the opening of Snow Basin (now Snowbasin) in the Wasatch mountains east of Ogden and west of the Trappers Loop road. This area had been previously been over-logged and overgrazed, and the land surface had been stripped essentially bare due to these aggressive practices. As a result, it began to produce debris flows whenever it rained hard enough (similar to a wildfire burn scar), and eventually a heavy summer thunderstorm in 1923 caused a major flash flood that killed many people and washed away several businesses. Ogden and Weber County, determined to never let that happen again, bought up the land in that area and transferred it to the Cache National Forest for restoration. The Forest Service and local skier Alf Engen committed to creating a ski resort recreational destination there. A rope tow opened in 1939, but there was no easy road access to the new ski area until 1940, when the Civilian Conservation Corps built a road south to the new resort from SR 39. That was added to the state highway system the next year as SR 226, and SR 227 was designated at the same time in the same area:

Route 226. From route 39 near Huntsville southwesterly to Mt. Ogden.

Route 227. From route 39 near the Pine View Dam southeasterly to route 226.

Below is a USGS topo map of the Snow Basin area:

USGS (Snow Basin), 1955.

SR 226 is shown clearly there, and as you can tell by comparing with a modern map, it does not match the current SR 226 to Snowbasin (we'll get to that in a minute), and the original entrance to the ski resort was also at a different location corresponding to what Google currently labels "S Wc226 Rd". But what about 227? Based on the legal description, SR 227 was supposed to follow Wheeler Creek, which has its headwaters at the base of Snowbasin, flows north parallel to 226 for a bit, then turns north and empties into the Ogden River right below Pineview Dam. 227 actually appeared on this map:

Flying A Service (Salt Lake City), 1944.

This is fascinating, but I believe it's an error. As far as I can tell, nothing was ever built along the creek between 226 and 39. The 227 designation would be deleted in 1953.

No further changes occurred in this area for over thirty years. But in 1984, at the request of Morgan and Weber county officials, the old Trapper's Loop Road (pre-1945 SR 85) was restored to the state system, this time as SR 167. The 1985 legislature approved that addition, defining the route as follows:

From Route 84 northerly via Trapper's Loop Road to Jct. Route 39 south of Huntsville.

Now, one might notice that Trappers Loop Road ends at Old Highway Road (old US 30S) and does not actually intersect I-84. That connection may have been planned to be constructed early on, but other issues with 167 soon took priority. The original idea was that UDOT would reconstruct and pave old Trappers Loop Road to modern state highway standards, but it was quickly realized that this would be prohibitive due to steep grades near Huntsville and other geological considerations including unstable soil and landslide areas. As a result, it was decided that an entirely new alignment would be built about a mile west of the old one, and this was approved in a 1987 Utah Transportation Commission resolution:

UDOT, 1987.

The decision of what to do with the old road was apparently quite contentious. Landowners on the Morgan County side wanted the old road closed immediately and given over to private control, as they believed this would decrease trespassing and property damage that they were experiencing. However, Weber County wanted the road kept open and under some level of public control, because they believed trespassing and property damage would actually increase if it were to be turned to private control. It seems several land parcels in this area were not adjacent to the old road, so one would have to travel across other property to access these areas. Owners of these non-adjacent parcels were worried that eliminating the public right-of-way would weaken and hinder their access rights, while other owners were worried that trespassing across their land to access these parcels would increase.

Ultimately, it was determined that the old road would remain under UDOT maintenance, open as a seasonal road as it had been for years before, until the new western alignment opened. As soon as that happened, SR 167 would be moved there, and Old Trappers Loop would be returned to the counties, which would then be able to do as they pleased with it. 

The new Trappers Loop Road opened in September 1989, as a three-lane road (two uphill lanes, one downhill). As promised, Morgan County rapidly abandoned their section of the old road (though it looks like part of it has since been incorporated into a newer subdivision). In fact, the south end of the old Trappers Loop is barely even noticeable today from Old Highway Road, appearing as an inconspicuous dirt driveway with a faded ROAD CLOSED sign (Google maps link). The Weber County side is still drivable for some distance but is now closed and gated off about a half-mile up from SR 39.

The opening of New Trappers Loop opened a couple more cans of worms. The first was the south end of SR 167, which did not connect to any other state highways or the interstate. To remedy this, SR 167 was extended west along Old Highway Road to I-84 exit 92 in 1990.

UDOT, 1990.

The other issues involved the potential of access to Snowbasin from the new highway. It was realized early on that it would probably be fairly easy to construct a road from SR 167 west to Snowbasin that would be much shorter and probably safer than the existing connection from SR 39. Further pressure to build this road came when Salt Lake City was awarded the 2002 Winter Olympics and Snowbasin was chosen as the venue for the Downhill, Super-G, and Combined ski races. In 2001, UDOT awarded a contract to build this road, and the old alignment would be transferred to Weber County as soon as the new road was built and UDOT had done one final repave on the old road. The new road was designated as a relocation of SR 226.

UDOT, 2001.

What's interesting about this is that the route endpoints weren't the same. Snowbasin built a new base area slightly to the northwest of the old base, so the new SR 226 actually overlapped around a half-mile of the old one (though in the opposite direction), and this created essentially one long connection from SR 39 to SR 167 that went by Snowbasin. Snowbasin planned to build a roundabout at the intersection of this road and the road to the new base area. UDOT wanted no part of constructing or maintaining this roundabout, so the west end of the new SR 226 is just east of that intersection.

(By the way, that roundabout was never built. But there's still plenty of room for one.)

UDOT retook temporary jurisdiction of the old SR 226 alignment between January 1 and March 15, 2002 so that there would be two state-maintained roads to Snowbasin during the Olympics. After that, the Old Snowbasin Road was given back to Weber County for good, and it is now inventoried as Federal Aid Route 3469. For several years, the county continued to maintain it as a summer-only alternate route to Snowbasin. However, this proved quite difficult as it travels through an especially landslide-prone area, and the road never opened for summer 2011 due to the severe landslides and road damage following the exceptionally wet 2010-11 winter season. Since the road is no longer necessary as a through route, the county moved quite slowly to fix it. According to one blog post I found, the county repaired some segments in 2014 and was on track to open the road in summer 2015...but I don't think that ever happened, and it now appears they've pretty much given up on ever reopening it. The old Snowbasin Road is now permanently closed to automobile traffic between Snowbasin and the Art Nord Trailhead, which is about halfway up to the ski area from SR 39.

Despite those issues in the area, ever since the Olympics SR 167 and SR 226 have remained intact with only routine maintenance and no route changes. UDOT's long range plans does have an extension of Trappers Loop Road south to I-84, where a new interchange will be built; however, this is currently unfunded and likely won't happen before 2040 at the absolute earliest. If the current plan is any indication, Trappers Loop will be widened to four lanes long before any interchange gets built, and I can't see even that happening for at least another 15-20 years. 

Route Photos

SR 167

Photos from this route were taken in June 2019 and August 2021. Should be fairly obvious based on background colors which is which. :)

Initial reassurance shield after turning onto the highway. Apparently this is also a Utah Scenic Backway, which is weird because this road is hardly "back". This is probably the only backway that's three lanes the entire way.

7 miles to Snow Basin, which is still typically spelled the old way on UDOT signage (two words instead of one). Another 2 miles to Mountain Green.

A typical sign for a Utah mountain road.

As we climb up higher, we'll start getting the tall orange poles that help snowplows find the road during heavy winter storms

Awesome views abound on this road in the springtime.

Looking to the south into the Morgan Valley. This stretch of 167 meanders across the Ogden/Weber river divide and thus the Weber/Morgan county line for some time

Coming up on SR 226, the New Snowbasin Road.

Turn right for SR 226 west, which goes to Snowbasin and provides access to the National Forest

SR 167 reassurance shield after that junction. We'll cross the ~6040 foot summit and enter Morgan County for good here.

The descent into Morgan County features great views of the eastern side of the Wasatch ridgeline, which is a lot less steep than the western side

This little sign welcomes us to Mountain Green.

At the bottom of Trappers Loop Road, we can turn left for Morgan or right for Ogden and Salt Lake City

SR 167 will turn right on Old Highway Road towards I-84 west. That's a half-diamond interchange with no access to I-84 east, so turn left if that's your ultimate goal.

Old Highway Road to the east is Federal Aid Route 1978.

SR 167 southbound reassurance shield after making that right turn.

The signage of this road varies wildly. Most newer street signs simply say "Old Hwy"...

...some use the full "Old Highway Rd"...

...while others use "Old Highway SR-167" - which isn't quite true, since this is still 167

SR 167 ends not far ahead and defaults into an on-ramp to westbound I-84.

SR 226

All photos here were taken June 2019.

Reassurance shield posted as we leave 167 towards Snowbasin

Despite the ski resort, this road is not even plowed at night. They can get away with this because Snowbasin does not have any lodging at the base, nor does it have night skiing.

These ski-run type signs tell us to continue ahead 1/4 mile to Snowbasin. These are probably there from when the base area was originally moved 

State maintenance ends.

State Route 65: Emigration and East Canyons

For this post we will finally end the trend of moving southward with each post. Instead of posting about something in southern Utah, we'll go back up to northern Utah and discuss the state highways that have served Emigration and East Canyons. This post actually turned out much longer than I'd originally planned - turns out there is a ton of history up here.

These canyons are fairly well known as the route of the Mormon pioneers. From a topographical standpoint, the route across the Wasatch Mountains does not make a whole lot of sense because it requires three mountain passes...but although the crossing can technically be made without any, the terrain is much more difficult with narrow canyons and other obstacles. The route of the Mormon Trail is shown on the map below, with relevant terrain features included:

This route derives from the Hastings Cutoff and had only been explored a couple years before the Mormons first traveled it. In 1845, explorer John C. Fremont surveyed much of the interior West, including the central Rockies and Great Salt Lake Desert, and realized that what is now northern Utah could be used as a shortcut for the California Trail, bypassing the long detour north to Fort Hall, Idaho. John Hastings learned of this new route and led a party of westward emigrants along the new cutoff - descending through Echo and Weber Canyons to the modern site of Ogden before continuing west across the Great Salt Lake Desert. Although the Hastings party did ultimately make it to California safely, they found the descent through Weber Canyon extremely difficult.

The famous Donner-Reed Party was initially supposed to travel with the Hastings party, but they were about a week late. As a result, they got advance word of the difficult terrain in Weber Canyon and pioneered a new trail through the Wasatch Mountains - including the major obstacle of Big Mountain Pass. Although the south side of the pass drains directly into the Salt Lake Valley, the lower portion of what is now called Parleys Canyon was very narrow, and so the Donner party opted to descend via Little Mountain and Emigration Canyon. This extra trail-blazing took about a month and was probably the largest contributor to their ultimate fate in the Sierra Nevada the following winter.

At any rate, when the Mormons moved west in 1847, they followed the Donner party's trail since it was at the time the best route to the Salt Lake Valley. It later also became the route of the Pony Express during its brief existence. But over time, the route gradually fell out of use as roads and railroads were developed through the more direct Parleys and Weber Canyons. It is somewhat interesting that the canyons expressly avoided during early pioneer days are the ones that wound up as the major highway corridors.

The first state highways were created in 1910, codified into state law in 1919, and were all numbered by 1927. But it took until 1931 for the old Mormon Trail route to be added to the state highway system, as SR 65:

(65) From Salt Lake City easterly via Emigration Canyon and along old Mormon trail as near as practicable to Henefer.

But here's how it appeared on the official state highway map in 1936:

USRC/Gousha, 1936.

There was no road worth putting on the map connecting Emigration and East Canyons. At the time, a road existed up Emigration Canyon (labeled 65 here), but it dead-ended without any connection to Mountain Dell or Parleys Canyon. In addition, though it's not labeled as 65 on this map, the portion of the road from US 30S in Henefer south through East Canyon did exist...but it just went to Gorgoza on US 40 (now Jeremy Ranch). There was no connection over either Little or Big Mountain Pass.

This was still the case by the time of the 1940 census:

US Census (Morgan County), 1940.

US Census (Salt Lake County), 1940.

The Morgan and Summit County maps show that at this point, SR 65 was only signed from US 30S in Henefer down to its junction with SR 66 at East Canyon Reservoir. Although the portion of today's alignment running along the bottom of East Canyon did exist, it appears not to have been signed as a state route.

The Salt Lake County map has a road heading up Emigration Canyon and dead-ending, as well as another dead-end road heading north from US 40 up Mountain Dell Canyon. The northern portion of this second road would become part of SR 65 once a connection existed. The map also illustrated a state highway system addition that had been made in 1935, creating SR 172:

Route 172. From route 65 in Emigration Canyon to Pinecrest.  

The actual location of "Pinecrest" was probably at the modern split of Pinecrest Canyon Road and Lefthand Fork Lane a couple miles up the canyon. Since 65 did not exist east of the Pinecrest road, at the time SR 65 and 172 really served more or less as one combined route. And indeed, the resolution page for 172 notes that even though it was designated a separate route by the state legislature, it was maintained by the Commission as part of SR 65. I would be curious to know if this means 65 was the signed route number on this segment - normally I'd think so, but 172 does appear on the census maps which normally only had signed numbers.

A connection from the Mormon Trail road to SR 4 (US 40) at Mountain Dell was also added to the 65 legislative description in 1938...but as we just saw with the maps above, the Mormon Trail road wasn't even a state highway here yet! So by 1940, the legal definition of route 65 consisted of a road from Salt Lake City east up Emigration Canyon, over Little Mountain Summit, up Mountain Dell Canyon, over Big Mountain Pass, down East Canyon, over Hogback Summit, and down to Henefer, with a spur down Mountain Dell Canyon to US 40 at Mountain Dell. The roads over Little and Big Mountain Passes did not exist, while the roads in East and Mountain Dell Canyons were probably not signed as state highways. 

The next year's official UDOT map included the completed Little Mountain Summit road (by which point SR 172 certainly would have become a signed route), but still nothing over Big Mountain yet:

USRC, 1941.

So upon completion of that pass, there were essentially two routes designated as SR 65 - one from Salt Lake City to Mountain Dell, and another from Henefer to East Canyon. There potentially may have been signage directing 65 traffic over US 40 between Mountain Dell and Gorgoza, but this seems rather unlikely. In 1945, it seems the state legislature realized there were in effect two unconnected SR 65s, but their response was rather strange -  that year, the entire branch from Mountain Dell Canyon to Henefer was removed from the legislative description.

But only two years later, that deletion was reversed. The Big Mountain Pass road had finally been completed by 1947, and the Little Mountain-Henefer road was added back to the SR 65 description then. An observer examining this situation in detail might notice that this would have created a three-pronged SR 65 meeting at Little Dell: one branch would have run west to Salt Lake City, another south to Mountain Dell, and another northeast to Henefer. In order to avoid this situation, the 65 number was restricted to just the Salt Lake City-Henefer road, with the spur to US 40 at Mountain Dell becoming SR 239. At the same time, the roads in This Is The Place Heritage Park at the mouth of Emigration Canyon were added to SR 65 for the state to maintain. This was apparent on the 1950 Shell map of Utah:

Shell/Gousha, 1950.

That map actually screws up the county lines - SR 65 has never entered Summit County in the Big Mountain region. Interestingly, so do the official state maps from that time frame - but neither the road nor the county lines have moved, so my hypothesis is that the county lines were poorly mapped to begin with and were never changed once the Big Mountain Road was accurately mapped. However, what is important is that roads existed over both area mountain passes. So by 1950, SR 65 consisted of a highway from Salt Lake City to US 30S in Henefer, with branches to Pinecrest (SR 172) and Mountain Dell (SR 239) along the way. That configuration remained stable for nearly 20 years.

If you thought that was confusing, the story of exactly how 65 ended in Salt Lake is even more complicated. It appears the initial west end of this route in Salt Lake City was located at US 91/SR 1 at the junction of State Street and 900 South. From there, it ran east along 900 South before shifting north on today's Amanda Avenue and exiting to the east on Sunnyside.

USRC/Gousha, 1933.

Unfortunately, SR 65 was never given a precise legal definition in Salt Lake, so we get to determine the changes by comparing a series of contradicting inset maps.  In 1935, SR 186 was created in eastern Salt Lake City, initially running along 400/500 South and 1300 East. Based on the map below, it appears this probably did not affect 65 at first. (I believe the displaying of 3rd/4th South as state highways is an error - almost certainly that was intended for 4th and 5th South, and this was corrected in subsequent official maps.)

USRC/Gousha, 1936.

...but it appears that four years later, 65 had been cut back to its junction with SR 186 at 1300 East, with the portion of 900 South between there and State reverting to city maintenance:

USRC, 1940.

That map shows a 1940 reroute of SR 186 along the red line, in conjunction with the completion of Foothill Drive south of Sunnyside and the creation of Alternate US 40 along 186. It is sort of unclear what was intended to happen with the extra portion on 900 South and Amanda Avenue - was that decommissioned at the same time? It seems sort of unlikely, given that the description of SR 186 was updated in the 1941 legislative session while 65 was not. So there could have been a brief 65/186 concurrency (or a gap in 65) along Sunnyside between Foothill and the east side of Mt. Olivet Cemetery.

The 1940 census map largely agrees with that, including a SR 65 shield on the Amanda/900 South routing down to 1300 East. However, the 1940 Rand McNally does not:

 

Rand McNally, 1940.

That seems to show SR 186 running directly east on Sunnyside from 1300 East (back then, Sunnyside didn't connect to 800 South), with either a gap or concurrency on 1300 East between Sunnyside and 500 South. 900 South and Amanda Avenue were shown as a local road. It also still has 900 South in bold - suggesting a state highway - all the way out to State Street...but if you ignore line width, the west end of 65 might be intended for the intersection of Sunnyside and Foothill Drive (we'll get into that in a minute).

I'd be inclined to ignore this Rand McNally completely...but the census map also lacks any road on the east side of Mount Olivet Cemetery, and a 1950 historic aerial shows no road or even really a trace of one there. So that may have only ever been a planned alignment, with 186/Alt 40 actually heading east from 1300 East on Sunnyside, probably via 9th and Amanda. If this was the case, it would have put the west endpoint of 65 at Foothill Drive and Sunnyside.

In 1945, the legal description was changed to explicitly place the western terminus of 65 at the junction with SR 186, by now also Alternate US 40. That for sure eliminated any remaining portions of SR 65 west of Foothill Drive, definitely putting its west end at Foothill Dr/Sunnyside. That was illustrated on the 1945 official inset map of Salt Lake City:

USRC, 1945.

But not too long after that, an alignment change was made on SR 186/Alt 40 that affected the endpoint of SR 186. It first appeared on the 1948-1949 official Salt Lake City inset; the map below is a 1950 Shell map showing the same thing:

Shell/Gousha, 1950.

So around 1947, the east-west route between 1300 East and Foothill had been moved to use 900 South the whole way, removing any part of 186/Alt 40 on Sunnyside. This seems rather strange today given that 900 South is a two-lane residential street and Sunnyside is a five-lane arterial...but the USGS map from 1952 backs it up. This was probably done to eliminate the shift south on Amanda from Sunnyside to 9th on 186/Alt 40 westbound. However, it resulted in a rather strange west endpoint of SR 65. 65 now began at Foothill Drive and 900 South, initially proceeding northwestward on Foothill before making a sharp right on Sunnyside.

But just a couple years later, 186/Alt 40 was rerouted again: this time to its modern alignment through Fort Douglas and the University of Utah, using the newly built 2100 East and Foothill Boulevard to connect from Foothill Drive to 500 South. This new 186/Alt 40 alignment was probably completed during 1952, as it first appeared on the 1953 official inset. (Of course, UDOT continues to sign the road southeast from 500 South as Foothill Drive...but Salt Lake City and the University of Utah correctly sign it as Foothill Blvd and 2100 East). This had the effect of moving the SR 65 terminus further east once again, to the intersection of Sunnyside and 2100 East/Foothill Blvd. That was a much more stable endpoint, and it remained there through the 1960s. 

Unknown source, 1964.

A pair of realignments were made along the parts of 65 outside Salt Lake in the mid-1960s. The first straightened out a section of Emigration Canyon just below the Pinecrest junction in 1965:

USDH, 1965.

The second was a year later, building a new alignment just east of the old one in the East Canyon Reservoir area:

USDH, 1966.

Unfortunately, the great 1969 decommissionings hit SR 65 rather hard. That year, the entirety of the road from Salt Lake City through Emigration over Little Mountain was removed from the state highway system, as was the spur to Pinecrest (deleting SR 172) and presumably also the roads in This Is The Place Monument. SR 65 was instead routed over SR 239, ending at US 40 (soon to also be I-80) at Mountain Dell. This deleted the SR 239 designation and restored SR 65 to the Mountain Dell road, where it had been designated but maybe never signed back in the 1940s.

But that same year, the north end of the route in Henefer was also adjusted. And it wasn't the first change up there either. SR 65 had always ended at Main Street (US 30S), but originally it came into town on Memorial Park Road and 100 North: 

US Census, 1940.

But by 1961, it had been moved to 300 North:

USGS (Devils Slide), 1961.

Fast-forwarding to 1969: that year, SR 3 (the legislative designation for I-80N) was officially moved from surface alignments to the interstate through the Henefer area. Henefer got two interchanges: one to the northwest and one to the southeast of town, with the original US 30S alignment connecting them. But, with SR 3 being moved to the interstate, US 30S needed a state designation. So SR 65 was extended down both legs to the interchanges...but since the interstate wasn't done yet, these would have only been signed as Temporary I-80N (and US 30S before 1972).

USGS (Ogden), 1980.

The interstate was fully completed through here around 1973. At that point, SR 65 would have become signed on both legs...but that did not last more than two years. In 1975, UDOT renumbered almost all spurs and multi-segment routes. Since Henefer was closer to the southeastern interchange, this part retained the SR 65 designation. The portion of old US 30S from Henefer northwest was renumbered to SR 86.

SR 65 has largely remained stable since then...except for the construction of Little Dell Reservoir. Surprisingly, Little Dell is much newer than the nearby lower Mountain Dell Reservoir. Mountain Dell Dam was built all the way back in 1917 and is one of Utah's oldest dams, while construction on Little Dell only began in 1987 - a few years after Salt Lake City experienced its most severe snowmelt flooding in decades. Despite its name, Little Dell Reservoir is actually larger than Mountain Dell; the name derives from a Pony Express station that was located near the north end of the reservoir. 

At any rate, the original highway alignments in the Little Dell area looked like this:

USGS (Mountain Dell), 1963.

Naturally, with the creation of Little Dell Reservoir, part of SR 65 was flooded and had to be moved to a new alignment, completed probably sometime in late fall 1987. The new 65 alignment was mostly a brand new roadway, but it did use some of the original Emigration Canyon road (resulting in the junction moving about half a mile west). Old 65 below the reservoir is no longer public, but it is still a maintenance road to the dam. The portion above the reservoir now serves the Little Dell Recreation Area.

USGS (Mountain Dell), 2014.

Since then, no further changes have been made to SR 65 or 86.

Route Photos

SR 65

Although I've driven the entirety of this route, I apparently only have photos from the portion between SR 66 and 86.

No reassurance shield right after the 66/65 junction, but we do get NPS signage for the California, Mormon, and Pony Express Trails.

Several miles and a mountain pass later, we reach Henefer.

Turn left to get to I-84 west, right for I-84 east and ultimately I-80. Both should have TO banners.

SR 65 turns right on old US 30S. 86 begins to the left.

SR 86

No progression, just a few photos here and there:

Heading west from Henefer, we'll pass this TO I-84 WEST trailblazer.

Baa.

End sign looking the other way.