We had a nice two-night backpack trip at Douglas Creek Canyon (North) over Memorial Day. To build on other trip reports:
- If you drive into the canyon from the north (taking H Road south off of Highway 2), the road to the first turnout (west side of the road) leading to the east-west portion of Douglas Creek Canyon is suitable for all vehicles. You descend from farm fields into the canyon and the turnout is to the right (west) and clearly visible from the road once you enter the canyon.
- The BLM map describes this area of Douglas Creek Canyon as being closed to motorized use, whereas the southern section is open to 4x4s. The sign at the parking area says the section is closed to motorized uses. But this is confusing because the majority of the trail after the first quarter mile is clearly designed for motorized use (it is an old railroad bed), and indeed two groups of side-by-sides and dirt bikes passed through on Sunday. So it may not be totally closed but seems less popular for motorized use.
- The tall grasses in the first quarter mile from the parking area and the grasses around the creek crossings are prime tick areas this time of year. We removed more than a dozen from our dog and several from each member of our party. The rockier areas of the trail away from the creek are tick-free. We didn't encounter any other bugs.
- The creek is accessible from the trail in only a handful of spots, so if you are planning to camp and need to utilize the creek as a water source, you might want to set up camp shortly before or after one of the creek crossings. We liked our spot along the trail about a mile in from the parking area, but it was about 1/3 mile back to the creek for water runs. There are nice flat spots along the rocky trail above the creek on both sides of the first creek crossing that we would probably use if we did this hike again.
- We saw two day-hiker groups on Saturday, two groups of 4x4s that came through Sunday, and no one on Memorial Day Monday.
- For wildlife, we saw one deer, two marmots, one 6'+ bull snake, and many birds (this is a great hike for birders: many goldfinches, spotted towhee, cedar waxwings, wrens, bluebirds, ravens, raptors). One of the day-hiker groups reported seeing a rattlesnake along the trail so be rattler-aware.
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