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Ghost Towns Near Salt Lake City

Nine Utah ghost towns and ghost-town sites within about a 90-minute drive of downtown Salt Lake City, sorted by what you can actually do there. Some you can walk through. Others you can only see from the highway, and a few are closed, private or dangerous.

Worth the drive

These are the places where being there adds something, and where going there is allowed.

See it from the road

Little or nothing is left to walk through, or the ground is hazardous or private, but the setting tells the story from a public road or pullout.

Coal MiningRoadside

Castle Gate

~85 mi · about 1 hr 25 min from Salt Lake City
The sandstone gateway to Price Canyon and a coal camp cleared in 1974. Nothing of the town stands. See it from the US-6 pullouts; the cemetery and memorial are open.
Copper MiningViewing only

Bingham Canyon

~25 mi · about 40 min from Salt Lake City
A copper city of about 15,000 that was razed in 1972 and swallowed by the open pit. The pit is the sight; the town is gone.
Lead-Zinc MillingRoadside

Bauer

~40 mi · about 50 min from Salt Lake City
A mill town abandoned in 1979 and capped by the EPA in 2022. Private land with toxic tailings. View the concrete terraces from a distance on public roads.
Gold & Silver MiningRoadside

Dividend

~75 mi · about 1 hr 30 min from Salt Lake City
Tintic Standard’s company town, built after a 1916 silver strike and dismantled in the late 1940s. The ground is private and next to active mining; see it from the public road only.

Read before you go

These are private, gated or restricted. Their posts explain why and what to do instead. Please do not trespass.

Planning notes

Drive times are rough estimates from downtown Salt Lake City in normal traffic. Check a live map before you leave, and expect longer on winter weekends.

A good one-day loop: Bingham Canyon overlook, Ophir, and a roadside look at Bauer, all on the west side of the Oquirrh Mountains. Castle Gate pairs well with Helper, and Knightsville and Mammoth with the town of Eureka.

Mine hazards: Never enter an adit, shaft or old mill. Shafts can be hundreds of feet deep and the air in abandoned workings can be deadly.

Land status changes. Gates close and ownership changes. If a road is posted or gated, it is closed to you, whatever a map shows.


Looking for more? Browse every town in Utah Ghost Towns or the full Explore page.