Camp Wilkerson, Fort Stevens State Park, Bob Straub State Park, and Horse Creek Horse Camp, Oregon

April is the season for either desert camping or coastal camping, and since I live in the desert, and also spent part of this year's winter in Arizona, I was ready for some greenery. Although I've camped at all of the coastal horse camps before, I had not yet ridden at either Fort Stevens or Bob Straub, so I decided to do a driving loop in order to check out both of these state parks. Neither of them have horse camps, which is too bad because I ended up liking both of them better than some of the places that do!

I started at Camp Wilkerson in the mountains outside of Rainier. I'd done a day ride there once, many years ago, but had not camped there. I arrived, finding the entire park empty, other than the camp host who was stationed at the entrance.

The Peter Iredale shipwreck at Fort Stevens.

Camp Wilkerson is a county park, with cabins to rent, as well as campgrounds, a day lodge and a trail system, all situated on 280 acres. The horse camp has 6 spots with 4 horse log corrals, each spot has it's own frost free water hydrant, that you can attach a hose to ( the water is potable, but it is a yellow/brown color, I chose not to drink it ) a manure bin, with a wheelbarrow, and quite a fancy bathroom with flush toilets and showers. It's $23.00 per night and you can't actually pay at the camp itself, so if you don't have a reservation you will have to pay at the park entrance, which isn't especially close by. (I hiked back over there, after I got my horse all set up). 

In my opinion spots #5 and #6 are the best, but they all have very large pull through's except for #4 which has a medium sized pullout. There is also a guest host camp spot, which has a really nice large corral, and although there was no host, you obviously aren't actually supposed to use it. In the middle of all of the sites is a picnic/cooking area with a huge fire ring and benches. There is also a day use area, with a loading ramp, a map of the trails, as well as some loop ride descriptions posted on the board.

Spot #5 at Camp Wilkerson.

Interesting water color, my horse liked it though.

After a very quiet, and pitch dark night, I started out on the trail system the next day. There are several loops than can be done with corresponding color coded markers, for a total of about 11.5 miles, but there are also a plethora of dirt and gravel forest roads surrounding the park. If you tried to do all the loops separately, you would sometimes be retracing your steps. I veered off the trails after awhile, and followed a lot of different roads, most of which dead ended. At one point I ended up in an open, logged area, and had views of Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams. I had cell service while I was in the higher hills, but there was none in camp.

Starting on the Liahona Trail.

Trails are marked at Camp Wilkerson.

Crossing Oak Ranch Creek at Camp Wilkerson.

Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams.

I spent another night at Wilkerson, and then I drove over to Fort Stevens State Park, in Astoria, the following day. The area where you can park horse trailers is huge, has a manure bin, and there is no fee.

Parking at Fort Stevens.

I rode the inland trails first, on the Fort Stevens Dune Trail, heading south, which is a little brushy in places, and then I crossed over Peter Iredale Rd. At this point the trail system becomes very pretty, the paths are well maintained and wider, and it's possible to do a few different loops. I followed part of the Burma Road Trail until it ended at DeLaura Beach Lane, which I then took over to the ocean. This lane floods, and I had to ride through two large "puddles" one of which was nearly up to my horse's belly.

A picnic area as you first start out on the dunes trail.

On the DeLaura Dune Trail.

Map of the inland trails at Fort Stevens.

Pretty big puddle to wade through.

Once on the lengthy beach, I continued south for awhile, but eventually turned around and rode back north towards the shipwreck of the Peter Iredale, which is this particular state parks claim to fame.

When I first got my current horse, Rina, I lived in the Hillsboro area, and it was only an hour and a half drive to get to Tillamook Spit for a day ride. I used to do that quite often, and I have also camped at the coast on many other occasions. During all of that time, when my horse was in her younger years, she was fine with the whole beach scenario, she wasn't bothered by the large crashing waves, enjoyed galloping along the sand, etc. But as she has gotten older she has taken an intense dislike to the ocean, and now she thinks it's the devil. Go figure. 

So once I hit the beach, I had an annoyed, prancy, foamy, sweaty, pony to contend with. We galloped ALOT. With a hotblooded horse this would have made matters worse, but this calmed her down and tired her out a bit, especially by the time I got to the shipwreck. This is a popular area, so there were lots of people, cars driving on the beach, kids, dogs, beach umbrellas and tents flapping in the wind, and two kites flying right next to us....none of that bothered my horse... just the ever so evil ocean!

The Peter Iredale shipwreck at Fort Stevens.

After leaving Fort Stevens I overnighted at Nehalem Bay State Park. The last time I was there was six years ago, and there are a few differences, which I have updated in the blog I wrote back in 2015. 

Nehalem Bay State Park

Some corrals are updated at Nehalem Bay State Park.

The next day started with an hours drive over to Bob Straub State Park, where unlike Fort Stevens there is a $10 day use fee to park in the lot. This park has the Nestucca River on one side and the ocean on the other, and in the middle are several different trails. There is not a huge amount of riding, but it is quite scenic. I rode along the river first, then did a short jaunt out onto the beach, (my pony was in a more tolerant mood about it this time) but since the tide was not out, we went back inland fairly quickly.

Lots of parking room at Bob Straub.

The inland trails at Bob Straub.

The Nestucca River at Bob Straub.

The beach at Bob Straub.

Haystack Rock at Bob Straub.

Riding on the inland trails at Bob Straub.

I was glad this was a slightly shorter ride since I still had to drive more than two hours to my next overnight destination, which was Horse Creek Horse Camp in the mountains above Florence. Getting to this camp from Hwy 101 might not be everyone's cup of tea, especially if you have a longer rig. It's a one lane, steep road for three miles, and only paved part of the way. 

Horse Creek is $11.00 per night, and has 11 spots in a line, with a loop road for turning around at the end. Sites #1 and #6 do not actually have any corrals, but the rest all have new pipe corrals. Numbers 7, 8, 9 and 11 only have one corral, the rest have two. #2 and #4 are the best for bigger rigs, as they have pull through's, and #10 has a pullout. There is a bathroom, but no garbage cans or a manure bin, and no water in the camp. Stock water can be accessed via a fairly long stroll along the trail system, at a spring fed water trough.

There is a day use area, with a loading ramp, as well as a couple of sets of older log corrals, and several other sites for picnicking.  

Site #2 at Horse Creek Horse Camp.

Horse water is accessible, but not close.

The spring fed water trough near Horse Creek.

There were two other campers, without horses, one of which were a couple of ladies who apparently camp there frequently, and said mine was the first horse they had ever seen there.

When I camped at Baker Beach in 2014, I rode the Cape Mountain Trails, that you can access from Horse Creek. I did not ride them again this time, but for info about these trails check out my Baker Beach blog.

GPS COORDINATES TO CAMP WILKERSON

GPS COORDINATES TO FORT STEVENS

GPS COORDINATES TO BOB STRAUB

GPS COORDINATES TO HORSE CREEK

Stewarts Point (Lake Mead Recreation Area) Valley of Fire, and Logandale Trails, Nevada

This is it... the final blog about my six week trip to Arizona/Nevada: After leaving Bumblebee:

Since I had made the decision to skip Sedona, due to weather, I decided to check out one more area in Arizona, on my way back into Nevada, where I would finish out my trip.

Valley of Fire State Park.

I drove over to Burro Creek Recreation Area in the Sonoran Desert between Wickenburg and Kingman. There is a regular people campground there, but like most places in Arizona, I knew they would likely be okay with horses as well. When I drove in, I double checked with the camp host and she said I could camp there, but that the site she figured would be best for me, was already taken. She also stressed several times that I would need to pick up my manure and take it with me. She then pointed out an area below the actual camp, which was larger, but not a real spot, and I went ahead and pulled into it. Unfortunately this area was too hard packed for me to get any corral poles into the ground. I asked her if I could put my corral into a small grassy area near the fence line, and she said no. I think she may have misinterpreted what I meant, and thought I wanted to put it on the other side of the fence. In any case none of the other camp spots looked great for putting up a corral either, so I decided to leave. This area would have been fine for someone who has a different type of horse containment. It's $14.00 per night and there is supposed to be water, but I didn't get a chance to see if it was actually available. 

I drove just a short distance away along Hwy 93 and found a nice dispersed spot just a little ways down Signal Rd. I noticed quite a lot of manure piles from wild burro's, which made me a little concerned they might show up at some point.

Later that night when I was in bed, I heard HEEEEEEEE HAAAAAAAW! My horse whinnied, so I leapt out of bed, assuming that was an SOS call and I needed to intervene with the burro or burro's trying to mess with her in some way. I had my headlamp, and I looked all around, but I saw absolutely nothing, so I got back in bed. A little while later...HEEEEEEEE HAAAAAAAW! I got back out of bed...nothing... you see where this is going. EIGHT hee haw's over the course of the entire night, culminating in one last bray at the crack of dawn, at which point I opened my window and shouted some very choice words into the dark, which of course was unhelpful, but made me feel better. What I found interesting was that the burro never did actually enter the little bubble of my camp spot, he kept his distance, but carried on his unrequited love affair with my mare, from afar. I got all my stuff packed up early, since I was awake anyway, and drove over to Lake Mead. 

Lake Mead Recreation Area.

Lake Mead Recreation Area is huge. I went through the entrance station from Boulder City, and it took an hour to drive all the way across to where I wanted to camp. And that's only one section of it. You have to pay $25.00 to drive through, even if you are not stopping, but that fee is good for a week, and you can dispersed camp for free in quite a few different places. I continued driving until I got to Stewarts Point. I picked that area specifically because it is very close to Valley of Fire.

The dispersed camping at Stewarts Point is unlimited, it would be pretty hard to not be able to find a spot. Most RVers get as close to the lake as they can, but most of the lake has fairly steep cliffs and it would be pretty difficult, although not impossible, to have access for hauling horse water. There is one bathroom when you first drive in, and plenty of cell service, but no other amenities.

RVers on the cliffs above the water.

My spot at Lake Mead.

I noticed some more burro manure in this area, but luckily there did not end up being any repeat performances of my previous experience. I got ready to ride as soon as I arrived, and ended up pretty much covering the entire area of the point, since there are deep ravines on either side, which prevent further exploration.

At Stewarts Point.

The southern ravine at Stewarts Point.

As I was riding along the far southern side of the point, I noticed some wild burros down in a ravine. They looked pretty surprised to see me, and started to run away, but couldn't help themselves from stopping periodically to gawk at me.

Wild Burro's at Lake Mead.

Rina is perhaps wondering if one of those burros was her suitor from the night before.

A fuzzy plant, don't know what it is.

Stewarts Point.

The next day I trailered over to Valley of Fire, which is just over 8 miles away. I assume it isn't always like this, but there was no one manning the entrance station, so I had to find a place to pull over and self pay the $10 fee, which is just good for one day.

As I was paying, I was accosted by a young guy from Michigan, who was drooling over my truck. He wants to buy it, so I now have his phone number in case I ever decide to part with it!

In the meantime since I had not received a map, I had to try and figure out where the equestrian parking area was. Since nothing was marked, I never found it, ( I did later on, but by then it was too late) so I just kept driving, and eventually found a spot alongside the road which ended up being the west end of one of the trails I was wanting to ride anyway. I did not get into any trouble for parking there, but who knows if I was actually allowed to. I started on the Arrowhead Trail, then went cross country through the Beehives area and over to the Petrified Logs. A film crew was setting up and asked, only half jokingly, if I would come back and ride through again while they were filming, I waved at them and declined.

The Beehives area.

Did the little loop through the petrified logs.

After the petrified logs section I crossed the main road and went up the Prospect Trail, ( this turned out to be one of the areas where you can park a trailer) and followed it until I got to what are called "rock scramble" sections of the trail. I actually went down one, but the next one was not doable on a horse. So I turned around and rode cross country for awhile through a wash, eventually finding another petrified log which was becoming unearthed from the soil. I'm not sure if any of the rangers know it is there, so I guess it will be my secret. Then I crossed back over the road and followed the east end of the Arrowhead Trail back to my trailer. 

On the Prospect Trail.

Riding cross country at Valley of Fire.

Not sure what these are, but they smelled great.

On the Arrowhead Trail.

On the Arrowhead Trail.

Another place to dispersed camp is Poverty Flats on Hwy 169, I passed it the next day on my drive over to Overton. There were a lot of people camped along the flats, it is a huge area, and would be very convenient as far as accessing Valley of Fire.

My destination was the Clark County Fairgrounds in Logandale, which is awesome! You get a whole lot of bang for your buck. For a $5.00 overnight fee, you can use the large pens (or $10 for stalls), park wherever you want, use hookups, and there is access to both of the arenas, including one that has lights. There are bathrooms, garbage cans, and of course potable water. Best of all, you do not have to call ahead, you just drive in and stay. You can even get WiFi, although it's a little iffy. I was the only one there at first, but a little later a couple of other separate rigs also pulled in.

The self pay station at Clark County Fairgrounds.

I stayed there for three nights, I was specifically timing my return trip to Oregon, waiting out a small storm that was hitting the area I needed to drive through for the last leg of my trip. Another couple from Utah were doing the same thing, taking their time, because of some bad weather back at home.

Also I wanted to ride the Logandale Trails, although not technically part of Valley of Fire State Park, it's the same red rocks, there are 200 miles worth of trails, and no fee.

Although I could see this area from the fairgrounds, I still had to trailer over to it. There is one very large parking lot with no amenities, where I parked, but if you keep following the road another couple of miles, there is a smaller trailhead with a bathroom, and a picnic area. You could camp at either of these parking areas, but I wouldn't recommend it, since it would not be peaceful or quiet with the amount of OHVers that spend time there. In fact, when I returned after my ride, the lot was packed with toy haulers and trailers, so much so, that I almost didn't have room to get back out.

Riding up the road to the actual trailhead.

Riding into the red rock.

There are a lot of little side canyons to explore. I went into a few, but mostly just continued through the middle of the rocks, riding south. There were just a few OHVers out and about in the morning, and the farther out I rode, the less of them that I saw. They seemed to congregate closer to the trailhead for the most part. The riding starts out on a regular dirt road, but eventually becomes fairly deep salmon colored sand. 

In one of the side canyons.

Deep salmon colored sand.

Logandale Trails.

Since the fairgrounds are actually across the street from wide open BLM land, that is where I rode the next day. This is not especially exciting or scenic but you could certainly ride for a long time. I didn't..... because although I started out on a nice mild day, shedding my sweater, I had been on the trails for maybe 10 minutes when incredibly fierce winds suddenly kicked up. Sand was getting blown into my eyes and mouth, and it was a whole lot less warm. After awhile I gave up and went back to the fairgrounds, whereupon the winds eased up considerably. 

BLM across from the Clark County Fairgrounds.

That was officially my last ride of the trip. The following day I drove over and spent the night at Scotty's Junction where I had camped on the way to Arizona, then the next leg was over to the Winnemucca Fairgrounds, and finally the last 7 hour jaunt was back to my home sweet home in Central Oregon.

GPS COORDINATES TO STEWARTS POINT

GPS COORDINATES TO CLARK COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS

GPS COORDINATES TO LOGANDALE TRAILS

Catalina State Park, Oracle State Park, and Bumblebee, Arizona

 This is a continuation of my six week trip to Arizona: After leaving Apache Springs:

I didn't know what to expect at Catalina State Park. I figured I would actually be camping with other horse people for once, but I wasn't sure how busy it would be. Although the other campgrounds in the park need to be reserved, and are consistently packed full of people, the horse camp is first come first serve. As it turned out, there were just a few other campers during the four nights that I stayed there.

Catalina State Park.

This is a great place to stop, whether you want to stay for awhile to ride, or just as a brief overnight to get water and/or do some shopping, laundry etc. since it is right in the city limits of Tucson.

You pay at the ranger station at the entrance of the park, and they will give you a map of the trails. They call the horse area, the equestrian center, and it is at the end of the road past all of the other campgrounds. It is also a trailhead, where cars park on the left and horse trailers park on the right. It is not a traditional camp with designated spots, you just pull in and park wherever you want in a large flat gravel area. Be prepared for hikers and bikers to walk through the corral area to gawk at and pet the horses.

Park anywhere at Catalina State Park's Equestrian Center.

The Equestrian Center has a large grid of 16 individual and fairly roomy steel corrals. Four of those are under cover and consequently have shade. There is a bathroom, potable water hydrants, some with hoses, a manure bin, with a wheelbarrow and rakes, and a picnic area, with grills, garbage cans and recycling bins. There is also a water trough and mounting blocks. The camp and entire state park is kept spotlessly clean, someone drove in to restock and clean the bathroom twice a day. Next door is people campground B, which is within walking distance, where you can have a delightful hot shower for free. After all of the dispersed, "roughing it" camping I had been doing, it was like a vacation from my vacation! Everyone that stayed there really liked it, and since it is only $20 a night, a lot of people who had been camping at private facilities were also thrilled with the lower cost. 

The Equestrian Center.

It was finally consistently warm during the day, and the nights were far nicer weather wise than what I had been experiencing previously. As soon as I arrived I met a couple from Idaho and we became friendly, exchanging notes about where we had been and where we were going next. They had been to some of the same places, and talked to some of the same people I had along the way. As I was chatting with them a bobcat nonchalantly wandered by in pursuit of some prey, and later I also saw a coyote stroll through camp.

The following day I decided to do a loop along the trail which leaves from camp. Once it splits, you can either follow the 50 Year Trail, or the Bridle Trail, which runs along the perimeter of the other campgrounds, eventually arriving at another hiker trailhead. There are also other obvious horse trails veering off every which way, and so I kept riding until I got to a viewpoint of the creek.

Along the Bridle Trail at Catalina State Park.

Looking down on part of the Canyon Loop.

I then did the Canyon Loop which is a short 2.5 miles and popular with hikers, who were mostly all delighted to see a horse, and were taking pictures and videos as I was riding by. One couple took two videos, thinking I was a different person the second time they saw me!

I also took a little detour over towards Romero Pools, but it was eventually blocked off and closed due to a recent fire. It is supposed to reopen in May of 2021.

On the Canyon Loop, in the burned area.

Kitty! This little bobcat thought I couldn't see her/him.

I then followed the Trail Link Trail which joins up with the 50 Year Trail. As another option you could continue up into the Santa Catalina Hills for awhile on the 50 Year Trail, to make a much longer ride.

On the 50 Year Trail.

Since this park is located close to other riding areas, I trailered out the second day and went over to Oracle State Park. There is no horse camp in this park, but there is a parking area on American Ave. that is suitable for horse trailers. You can ride either on a variety of trails, including the Arizona Trail, or through various washes or a combination of both, which is what I did. There is a porta potty and a self pay station, and it costs $7.00 for the day.

Parking at Oracle State Park.

At Oracle State Park.

There's a spigot at the windmill, but no water.

Instead canned water was provided.

As I was riding I noticed what looked like a little smoke above a nearby mountain range, but I thought I was mistaken, and it was probably just a cloud. Sure enough, as I kept an eye on it, it became a full blown plume, and it was obvious a fire had started.

Fire in the nearby mountains.

The Arizona Trail at Oracle State Park.

Kannally Wash.

On my way back to camp I stopped at a feed store to get propane, some more senior equine, and I wanted to look at what kind of hay they might have. There were three stores in the area to choose from and I chose Ranchers Supply. I knew hay would not be cheap in Arizona, but it was pretty shocking, alfalfa was $17.00 a bale and the only other option was Bermuda Grass which was $20.00 a bale. I just ended up buying one bale to tide me over. It was a fairly comical transaction, the man at the cash register was not really equipped to deal with the public, consequently I wasn't really able to communicate with him, so I was there for quite awhile, but finally got everything I needed. ( I bought more hay in Wickenburg, later on in my trip, at a much cheaper place called Texas Hay Co... only $14.25 a bale, for the same hay.) Turns out my horse doesn't really like Bermuda Grass, I still have some to this day, that she will not eat, and I've heard about other people's horses not caring much for it either.

When I arrived back at camp, the Idaho people had left and a new couple from Washington were parked in the same spot, which was close to me. They invited me to hang out with them over at their "house" and we talked for quite awhile. Pretty much everybody was on the road a lot longer than I was, my six weeks was a short trip in comparison.

The next day I hiked around the rest of the state park in the morning, visiting the Romero Ruins, and then in the afternoon I unhitched and went into town to do laundry and more shopping. That evening I went across the street to Red Lobster for dinner. Ah, the luxury!

Sunset at Catalina State Park.

After leaving Tucson my plan was to head to Sedona, stopping at Bumblebee along the way. I had no idea what Bumblebee was going to be like, until I got there. It is 5 miles off of Hwy 17 in the middle of nowhere, and it is tiny, and I do mean tiny, consisting of a few houses and the Bumblebee Ranch. You can camp with horses at the ranch, but there is also dispersed camping nearby, so I went ahead and grabbed a spot. Even though this is a fairly isolated area, there are cell towers up on a nearby hill, so I had plenty of service. There are no amenities, but it is possible to get stock water from a creek, if you want to go for a long walk. It's good for watering your horse on the way back from a ride, but it is not conveniently located for hauling. The GPS coordinates at the bottom of the blog are for the ranch, not the exact spot I camped.

Bumblebee, AZ.

My dispersed spot in Bumblebee.

As I was doing some last minute planning about where to camp in Sedona, I noticed the weather was not looking so great during the time I was supposed to be there. I hadn't ultimately had the best luck with weather during the whole trip, so I was definitely not looking forward to more frigid temperatures. And as soon as I was going to leave Sedona, it was going to go right back to being nice weather again. Figures.

My first ride in the Bumblebee area was just following the road/trail that I was camped off of. This is part of The Black Canyon Trail which is apparently 80 miles long, but in this area it is a pretty rugged narrow road that ATVers use. After awhile I was running into a few too many ATVers ( it was a weekend) so I veered off onto some less used two tracks. There were some pretty nice views along the way, and at one point my horse spotted an unidentified creature up on a hill. I also found a hermit type of shack, someone was actually living in so I skirted that, did some more exploring, and then followed another road which led me to a gate that I could not open, where I finally turned around. I also came across quite a few active mining claims along the creek.

Part of the Black Canyon Trail.

A long line of ATVers.

I turned around at this gate.

This road is cut through the rock.

A mining claim.

After my ride I walked into the town of Bumblebee. There was a trail running race/event going on, so it was probably a little busier than normal. There is a solid well used trail directly across from the ranch driveway, but since that was being used for the race, I did not end up exploring it.

The next day I followed The Black Canyon Trail in the other direction, but I didn't stay on it very long, since a steady stream of trail runners kept coming up behind me. Instead I went cross country, which was easier said than done, there were a lot of small but deep washes to cross and thick bushes, but eventually I skirted around the backside of Bumblebee Ranch, and followed a gas pipeline until I got back into more open country. I ended up checking out a small canyon, and then instead of going back the same way, I took the road right through Bumblebee.

Riding near Bumblebee.

Found this little canyon.

That's all there is to Bumblebee, AZ!

That concluded my stay at Bumblebee, and at that point I had decided that I was going to have to skip Sedona, which was a big bummer, but I had thought up a couple of new places to go, one being on the way back towards Nevada, (which did not end up working out)... more about that in my next and final blog about this trip.

Next stop: Lake Mead and Valley of Fire.

To be continued....

GPS COORDINATES TO CATALINA STATE PARK

GPS COORDINATES TO ORACLE STATE PARK

GPS COORDINATES TO BUMBLEBEE RANCH