When I drove into Beaver Dam State Park there was nobody there. There were no visitors and there were no rangers. It was completely abandoned and I had the entire park to myself the whole afternoon. I don’t think that has ever happened to me.
Unsurprisingly, the park is known as the most remote state park in Nevada. It is located way out in the middle of nowhere amidst the debris of an ancient volcanic eruption. Scattered around the park are tuff formations created from eroding ash deposits. Other places have hot springs, and Beaver Dam Wash flows through the middle of the park from it’s nearby headwaters in Pine Park.
To get there I drove about 60 miles on dirt roads from near Ivins, Utah. It’s about half that distance by dirt road from the Caliente, Nevada, but Caliente is already pretty far from anywhere else. I made a loop and continued my dirt road drive to Enterprise, Utah, where I took the paved highway back home.
If you come from the south you’ll be driving through this type of remote, empty terrain for several hours. There are no paved roads that lead to the park.
After driving a few hours I entered the settlement of Barclay, Nevada, which is also in the middle of nowhere. A few ranching families live here in isolation.
Beaver Dam State Park. Some interesting tuff formations I decided to take a look at.
It was harder to get over here than it should have been. Very brushy and overgrown and surprisingly no trail even though it was only a short distance from the road.
Beaver Dam Wash flows through the center of the park and provides year round water. The hillsides on the right are burned down.
The area was first visited by emigrants looking for a shortcut to California. They made a huge mistake but noticed how interesting the place was. Some families stayed in the area, among them, the Hamblins. Later when it was made into a park the Civilian Conservation Corps built a lot of improvements that were destroyed by floods only a few years later.
There are virtually no trails in the park but the Civilian Conservation Corps did build one along this stream to a hot springs, so I walked it. In the fall it’s a very peaceful stream.
Crawfish! I don’t know if they are natural or introduced but there are at least 9 of them in this picture.
On the left is the hot springs. The CCC built the little bathing pool and some concrete shelving so you can dangle your legs into the stream. The water was warm but not hot. Shortly downstream the creek goes over a falls into that crawfish pool.
Right next to the empty campground is another area of interesting tuff formations with a little slot canyon.
Fun stuff to walk around on. Very abrasive.
A third tuff area is in the north end of the park. It looked worth checking out but there was no trail I could find and the sun was setting. This is a telephoto shot. It was a pretty good walk to get over there.
A close up of that area. The tuff in this area as full of holes.
The remains of the Hamblin settlement. Behind that you can see the fall foliage along Beaver Dam Wash. North of there it curves away, entering a nice looking canyon that I might check out in the spring. you should be able to hike the creek all the way to the very cool area known as Pine Park.
There are a couple of collapsed structures and tons of junk all over the ground. The bushes are huge around here. I’m not even bending down.