SQUAW
You may have heard that Squaw Valley Resort is now looking into changing its name. (along with a whole bunch of other companies). Why ??? Because the word “squaw” is derogatory, and they are now being immensely pressured into changing it. You may think this is a good thing, but I have mixed feelings. If they were an honorable company, they would have changed the name decades ago, when they first learned it was derogatory. Changing it now is just cowardly. This is just my opinion. Are they also going to change the name of the mountain? the valley? the road? the creek? the waterfall? No, not very likely. (I know Squaw Valley Resort has nothing to do with these other names, but the exact same thing applies to them as well – so why shouldn’t they have to be changed?). As an aside, the ski resort where I grew up in British Columbia had a trail named Squaw. They changed the name of it some years ago. It is a lot different in changing just a trail name than a company name, but it still took them quite some time before it got changed.
Anyway, by pure coincidence, guess where I went hiking this past weekend? Oh yes, Squaw Valley Resort, soon to be called … ? Madman Valley Resort. And I went hiking to Squaw Creek Falls, soon to be called … ? Squaw Creek Falls.
My goal was to try to get to the upper falls on Squaw Creek. It was a failure. I hiked up the Granite Chief trail. This is a very difficult trail. Even though it was a Saturday, I expected to see zero people on this trail (or maybe, just one or two). Nope, I saw tons of people. Over 50 for sure. There was one huge group of about 20 people coming down the trail (and NOT social distancing, I might add). It was all a bit annoying. I thought this trail would give me a lot of solitude because it is so difficult, and I wanted solitude.
I climbed 2100 ft. up the mountain. There was still snow up there. The high elevation took a lot out of me, and it was a struggle, but I made it. Unfortunately, there was no waterfall. It looked very promising on Google Earth, but in person, it was just a minor cascade, and not worthy to photograph. I decided I would try to get to the other one on Squaw Creek that I have not been to before. It took too long to climb up the mountain and now it was getting late, so I ran back down the mountain as much as I could. I have tried to get to this other waterfall before, but it was just too brushy. I thought I could possibly do it from the other side this time, but again it was just too brushy. I did get a view of it, but it was impossible to get up close to because of the brush.
Interestingly enough, there was a trail here. Instead of climbing back up to the Granite Chief trail, I thought I would just follow this trail. It should lead me back to the main trail on the other side of Squaw Creek, and save me a lot of time. And bonus, I should be able get to the lower falls on Squaw Creek before dark. It worked. Crossing Squaw Creek was a challenge, however. There was still a lot of strong flow in the creek, and most spots were impossible to cross, but finally I found some rocks that I could use to jump across the creek. Easy.
I got down to the lower falls just before sunset, and took my photos. The day was not a complete bust after all, and I had a very pleasant hike at Madman Valley Resort.