After traveling the level areas along the Platte, the Sweetwater, and Black's Fork River in Wyoming, and then going down Echo Canyon, the thousand feet ascent up Pratt's Canyon was a grueling task. At the summit of Pratt's Canyon, as the trail levels out there is a breathtaking view of what lies ahead. When William Clayton, as a member of the Mormon Vanguard Company, in 1847, came to this vantage point, he declared "The country west looks rough and mountainous," In time "Hogsback Summit" came to be known by historians as "Heartbreak Ridge" describing the feelings of so many emigrants as they get their first view of the Wasatch Mountains which lay between them and the valley of The Great Salt Lake. The historical marker by The Utah Historic Trails Consortium at this summit states "it was heart-wrenching to discover that the most difficult part of the journey still lay ahead. Some people must have broken down and wept. Others gritted their teeth with determination and moved southwest down off Hogsback Summit to challenge the mountains and canyons that lay ahead."