<P> Early emigrants once called the California Trail an elephant, due to the difficult journey . If you wanted to get to California in pre-railroad times, you were guaranteed an arduous trek . California emigrants faced the greatest challenges of all the pioneer emigrants of the mid-19th century . In addition to the Rockies, these emigrants faced the barren deserts of Nevada and the imposing Sierra Nevada Range . The travelers of the California Trail often quipped that if you had "seen the elephant," then you had hit some hard traveling . </P> <P> The Mormon Trail was created by pioneer members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter - day Saints, called "Mormons," who settled in what is now the Great Salt Lake in Utah . The Mormon Trail followed part of the Oregon Trail and then branched off at the fur trading post called Fort Bridger, founded by famed mountain man Jim Bridger . Heading south and following river valleys southwestward to the valley of the Great Salt Lake, Brigham Young led the first Mormons into present - day Utah during 1847 . The Mormon Trail is 1,300 miles long and extends from Nauvoo, Illinois to Salt Lake City, Utah . The Mormon Trail was used for more than 20 years after the Mormons used it and has been reserved for sightseeing . The initial movement of the Mormons from Nauvoo, Illinois to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake occurred in two segments: one in 1846 and one in 1847 . The first segment, across Iowa to the Missouri River, covered around 265 miles . The second segment, from the Missouri River to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, covered about 1,032 miles . </P> <P> From 1846 to 1869, more than 4,600 Mormons traveled along an integral part of the road west, the Mormon Pioneer Trail . The trail started in Nauvoo, Illinois, traveled across Iowa, connected with the Great Platte River Road at the Missouri River, and ended near the Great Salt Lake in Utah . Generally following pre-existing routes, the trail carried tens of thousands of Mormon emigrants to a new home and refuge in the Great Basin . From their labors arose the State of Deseret, later to become the Utah Territory, and finally the State of Utah . </P> <P> The Mormon pioneers shared similar experiences with others traveling west: the drudgery of walking hundreds of miles, suffocating dust, violent thunderstorms, mud, temperature extremes, bad water, poor forage, sickness, and death . They recorded their experiences in journals, diaries, and letters . The Mormons, however, were a unique part of this migration . Their move to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake was a response to their violent expulsion from Missouri and Illinois . As it was also motivated by a desire to maintain a religious and cultural identity it was necessary to find an isolated area where they could permanently settle and practice their religion in peace . </P>

What is the final obstacle to the wagon trains journey