Deer Creek Trail #45, RV Parking

[louie]

Hello all,
My usual question. What's the short road and parking like for my 25ft RV? Thank you for the beta. Greatly appreciated!!!

[chumley]

The road is fine and while the loop is tight, you can turn a 25-footer with no problem. If you're just parking for a day hike it's fine, but I can't imagine anybody choosing to sleep there. You're only a hundred yards from the highway, at an elevated position so the sound is irritating. There may be a "no camping" sign ... I'm not sure. It's not a huge lot. If there are a bunch of cars parked around the loop before you get there, then getting an RV around the loop may be difficult.

[louie]

@chumley Thank you sir! I was thinking camping along the Barnhardt TH road then driving to Deer Creek for a day hike or back pack. I hiked Deer Creek years ago, but could not remember what the road and parking was like. Thank you for the info!

[Nighthiker]

Lot of folks camping along the road to Barnhart TH. this morning.

[louie]

@Nighthiker
I did some research on that and there are big sites for RV's, correct? Were they all taken? Just wondering how packed it actually gets up there. I was looking at some other roads as well between Barnhardt and Deer Creek like 415 and 1438, but just don't know anything about them. Barnhardt was the only one I could find with info about RV camping. Thank you for the info!!!

[nonot]

Saying there are designated RV sites is a bit of a stretch, it's a stretch of road across a rocky and generally barren area with not much to worry in most areas if you pull off the side of the road. Some areas to pull off may have signs leftover from previous campers.

[Nighthiker]

No designated camp sites on the Barnhardt or 414. Barnhardt road is rocky when you make the left turn heading west for the most part. The section before you make the turn overlooks Rye Creek and on the East bank of Rye Creek is a shotgun range. 414 road is the original Roosevelt to Payson Hiway sections are rough and most dispersed campsites are already taken. During the weekend there is a lot of quad and side by side traffic. If you still want to camp in the area, on the North bound lane opposite the Barnhardt Trail access road is a dirt road that leads to the East. This road was used in the construction of a power substation so its in good shape. The area is desert scrub the area to the South was the location of a WW2 emergency airfield (overgrown with brush). If you camp in this area you will likely hear coyotes, observe whitetail deer, observe an eagle looking for a change in its diet, looking for something with fur and not scales.

[louie]

@Nighthiker Awesome info!!! We’re boon-dockers so just need a spot in the dirt I can get my RV into. Thank you for that info about the road on the east side. I saw that on my Topo and wondered about that. Much appreciated!!!

[louie]

Found a great site along the Barnhardt road to camp in the RV. Got really confused with Deer Creek trail. I got to a spot where the trail clearly went left up the hill through a gate towards what looked like Lincoln Spring. Is that still Deer Creek trail or does one stay right and pick their way through the creek bed at that point? Here 's a pic of the sweet RV camp and another topo pic where we got confused.

[chumley]

@louie
HAZ is an archive forever. Unfortunately, that means that sometimes there are GPS tracks that are totally wrong. In this case, it's an "official route". Don't follow it.

See all the other routes here that follow the actual trail (Satellite clearly shows the trail cut).
[ custom map :: map ]

[Nighthiker]

Was down in the Rye Basin Thursday morning, thought I noted an RV also noted a light colored vehicle heading up to the trailhead quite fast.

[nonot]

Unfortunately, all the good routes are part of loops and there is no good GPS route for Deer Creek itself that can be made the new official track. If someone would split their loop hike and post an individual track, it could be promoted to official route. Looking at mine - though I went the right way at the part louie describes, later on in the canyon my route lost good GPS tracking for a half mile or so, thus it isn't good enough to be made an official route if I split it out. This may be a job for the HAZ master himself.

[louie]

@nonot From looking at what Chumley posted to stay on trail I guess we should have gone left at that spot and continued up the hill. I just got really confused by the high route when it took us through a gate and just kept going higher away from the creek bed so went back down and tried to pick our way through the creek bed. But made a sweet camp right in the middle of the stream bed with creek on both sides. I wanted to day hike up the creek bed the next day to try to find where the trail came back in, but my kid wasn’t having it not having some sort of trail to follow and I was pretty happy to get him to come out for the night so didn’t push it. It’s been 20 plus years since I hiked Deer Creek, but I did not recall ever getting that far from the creek which was why it just felt like I was going towards a dead end to Lincoln Spring. I remember this sweet camp spot years ago not far from Davy Gowan’s grave where someone had taken the flat creek rocks and made these huge stone chairs complete with arm and back rests that was super cool.