A Bit Squirrelly
Well we sure got dumped on this weekend. Lots of rain, and plenty of snow in the mountains (and it is still coming). I knew the waterfalls would be going crazy so I really wanted to get out. According to my weather reports, it looked like Monday might be the best day (it only said “showers”, not “rain”). That turned out to be quite wrong to say the least. It rained all morning long on Monday, and I got completely drenched hiking. Darn weather reports, anyway. You probably think I am a bit “squirrelly” to go out hiking in the rain, or if there is a possibility of rain. I suppose you would be right about that.
Anyway, I had a few different thoughts on where to go, but I decided on trying out a couple new ones in the Grass Valley area. This one here is Squirrel Creek Falls. As you can see, the waterfall is flowing pretty crazily. For most of the year this creek is dry, but after a lot of rain it gets going. And we had a lot of rain. And it was sure going.
The hike down to Squirrel Creek is pretty easy. It is actually private property, but it is open to the public for hikers and bikers (awesomeness). The road leads down to the bottom of the falls, where I found a lot of garbage (not so awesome). It is certainly a fabulous waterfall when it is flowing, and I measured it be 62 ft. high, but it was raining hard the entire time I was down there, and that makes it very difficult to take photos. I am not too happy with this one. Oh well, perhaps I will just have to go back someday.
After shooting this, I ventured downstream. There is another waterfall on this creek far downstream. I wasn’t planning to try to get all the way down to it, but I was curious if there was a trail. There was a trail and I followed it for awhile. But it led right to a house. It was a newly built house, but there was no one around, and it was seriously out in the middle of nowhere. I could see NO roads going down to it at all. It seemed that they would have to hike into their house to get to it. It was very strange. Anyway, I turned around here, and I’m not sure if I could have followed the trail more downstream or not. It might be something to try another day.
To see more information on this waterfall, including directions and maps, please see my website:
http://www.waterfallswest.com#recent