Beaver Dam Trail #1001

Dogs Off-leash

Features River/Creek · Swimming · Wildflowers

Beaver Dam Campground has four campsites (two tent sites, two trailer sites) with picnic tables and fire pits, two vault toilets, but no drinking water. Daley Creek Campground has six campsites (three tent sites, three trailer sites) with picnic tables and fire pits, a vault toilet, but no drinking water. Plan on bringing your own water (or be able to treat the creek water). Parking is limited at Beaver Dam Campground but it is possible to park on the shoulder along Forest Road 37 (Big Elk Road). More parking is available at Daley Creek. So if you want to experience the whole trail, park at Daley and hike back up the road to the start of the trail at Beaver Dam Campground.

This trail starts at the south end of the small Beaver Dam Campground and goes briefly south to a crossing of Beaver Dam Creek. The bridge here is now gone but the creek is not hard to cross (except perhaps during spring high water). After this crossing, the trail turns north for 0.4 miles to where it reaches Forest Road 37. This section of trail is evident and fairly easy to follow.

The trail continues almost directly across the road but is unsigned here; you may have to look for it. Once found, the trail will take you to a signed junction. Going left (west) here used to take you on an alternative trail along Deadwood Creek that re-connected with the main Beaver Dam Trail in about 0.25 miles. But this alternate has been long abandoned and is very hard and unpleasant to follow.

So, turn right (east) here instead, cross a wooden bridge, enter Daley Creek Campground, go to its north end, and look for the obvious continuation of what is now the main Beaver Dam Trail. This trail goes for 0.2 miles, cross a tributary of Beaver Dam Creek on a bent, but still usable, bridge, and then continues north along the east side of Beaver Dam Creek for about 0.6 miles, crossing another bridge over a tributary in the process.

The trail becomes less well-used as it heads north (it's heaviest use is where it provides campers with access to swimming holes in the creek) and ultimately ends at another crossing of Beaver Dam Creek. The bridge that used facilitate crossing here is gone and there is almost no evidence of what was once a loop trail on the other side. The trail today is just a pleasant creekside out-and-back from either the Beaver Dam Campground or the Daley Creek Campground.