Deer Creek State Park, Utah

Friday – July 12

Long day today – about 260 miles. We’ve been keeping it to only a couple of hours of driving time each day, but it’s hard to get very far that way. 

We’re stopping two nights at Deer Creek State Park, in Utah. We'll be visiting sister Diana and her husband Don in Park City, but couldn't get into Jordanelle State Park until Sunday, so this is a holding place.  

Our route from Nevada, took us over hwy 50 and then hwy 6 when it split off to the north. This is really desolate country, and seemed even “lonelier” than the stretch of Nevada we’d just traversed. If it weren’t for the fascinating mountain ranges in the distance and the beautiful puffy thunderheads we wouldn’t have had any scenery at all.

Entering Utah we drove through several small, not very prosperous-looking farming communities before we finally reached the more mountainous area where the Deer Creek is located.

We arrived in the early afternoon and were somewhat dismayed to not have any map or brochure of the park offered when we checked in. When we asked if any were available we learned that on June 10 vandals burned the park office building (follow the link to the news article). Everything burned including all the park brochures. We did see the perfectly clean, recently disturbed plot of ground where tractors had cleaned up the remains of the building. So, no map, no info, we just poked our way around.

The campground at the upper level is spacious, and has a nice view of the lake in one direction and magnificent mountains in the other. The lower loop is more along the older style of campgrounds, crowded, and good for tents and small vehicles.

It's not a particularly dog-friendly park, as there are no dogs allowed on any beach, or at the boat ramps. That leaves the campground, only! We couldn't find any trails that would be appropriate for just walking, as they all lead down to the beach. 

It's a pretty good location for birdwatching, as the berries on the many serviceberry bushes around the park are ripe this time of year, and the weedy wild grasses and flowers that are also ripening are popular with many bird species. Several birds flitted through our site, and we enjoyed the activity as well as the entertainment of trying to figure out exactly which bird it was. When they move quickly it's hard to get the binocs on them.

We ran up to Heber City for grocery shopping as it's close by, and got things in order for moving to Jordanelle. A rather mundane stop, but it served our purposes. I hope they catch whoever set that fire!