In the spring, Bunker and John finally made it to Wisconsin, but they soon left for Nauvoo, Illinois, with a letter of introduction to apostle George A. Smith.
The Battalion marched to Santa Fe, Tucson, San Diego, and finally to Los Angeles, where Bunker finished the six months he had left in his tour of duty.
Bunker then traveled north with other Battalion members to Sutter's Mill, where gold was discovered, and then to Salt Lake City, arriving on October 16, 1847.
The Platte River was frozen, and they were reduced to eating rawhide saddles and a mule that fell through the ice before they reached Winter Quarters on December 18.
When plural marriage began to be lived openly in 1852, Bunker took a second wife, Sarah Ann Browning Lang, a widow with two daughters.
Bunker was called on a mission to England in 1852, and he presided over the Bristol, Sheffield, Bradford, Lincolnshire, and Scotland conferences of the LDS Church.
Bunker, on his own initiative but with permission from Brigham Young, moved his large polygamous family 25 miles southwest to Bunkerville after the settlers in Santa Clara had failed to live the communitarian United Order.
After submitting his arguments to the council (and eventually, the President of the Church), he was told that his teachings were incorrect and that he should stop creating contention in the Mormon community.