The Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail is the 1,300-mile overland route from Nauvoo, on the Mississippi, across the plains and the Rockies to the Salt Lake Valley.
Nauvoo is the beginning of the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail, which stretches 1,300 miles (2,090 kilometers) from the Mississippi River across the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains to the Great Salt Lake Valley.
Beginning in 1846, tens of thousands of Latter-day Saints left home and crossed by ship, wagon, handcart, and later by train. About 70,000 came to Utah between 1847 and 1869, when the transcontinental railroad was finished. From 1856 to 1860, about 3,000 people in ten companies came by handcart.
The National Park Service recognizes that route as the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail. The Church tells it on its Pioneer Trail page, the Mormon Trails exhibit, and Remembering Handcart Pioneers in the Sweetwater Valley.
This Heritage Area is not that trail
The Mormon Pioneer National Heritage Area is the later settlement corridor along Highway 89 in central and southern Utah. The towns here were built after the overland journey. We are not the Iowa-to-Salt Lake trail site, and we do not list official trailheads or GPS points for the historic route. For those, use the National Park Service or the Church pages above.
The Utah settlement story is on The Mormon Colonization. What the Heritage Area is, and is not, is on About.
If you want to drive
You can drive the Heritage Area on Highway 89, All-American Road State Route 12, and Scenic Byway State Route 24. That is not the same as driving the historic trail as one continuous road. The short answer is on Can you drive the Mormon trail?. For the corridor itself, use the Travel Planner.
Who the pioneers were, and why they came to Utah, is on Mormon Pioneers and the FAQ.