Squaw Creek Reservoir
and Wall Creek Canyon
January, 2007
By John Evanoff
North of Gerlach on NSR447, you’ll come upon
a reservoir on your left that seems out of place for the desert
plain. Squaw Creek is a warm spring running from a ground fault
located west of the Granite Mountain Range. These mountains are
spectacular from either side, but the way the storms come from the
west leaves the west side much more wet and more densely vegetated.
The black lava cliffs throughout the hillsides are left over from
massive volcanic movement more than twelve million years ago. Ancient
man used these lava outcrops as hiding places to wait out game as
it passed by on game trails. For that reason, the Northern Paiute
and Shoshone Tribes used this region extensively for their encampments.
The hills to the east of Squaw Creek Reservoir are filled with game
including vast herds of antelope, mule deer and elk. There are also
bobcat, coyote, mustang, weasel, badger, skunk and mountain lion
as well as an occasional desert big horn and mountain goat. The
area is also a prime sage grouse nesting ground and coveys of quail
and partridge can be found throughout the many canyons and hillsides.
My father and I hunted here throughout the 1950’s and I have
fond memories and many stories of our hunts and friends there.
The Indian families that lived here for thousands
of years had no problem living off the land in this valley and because
the sands around the creek and surrounding hot water springs stayed
warm throughout the winter, the sagebrush huts were fairly comfortable.
In places throughout Squaw Creek and Wall Canyon, some of the hillsides
are covered with obsidian, chert and slate flakes left from the
Indian Brave’s who created their arrowheads, knives and drill
pieces there. These tribes made some of the more exquisitely worked
arrowheads in the entire west. Kit Carson, the great western scout
who guided John Fremont in his quest to map the west, commented
on the Northern Paiute’s attention to detail and artistic
hand in the making of these pieces as well as their finely made
tule and willow baskets.
The fishing at Squaw Creek Reservoir and the creek
that feeds it is excellent. Most fly fishermen use float tubes and
maneuver around the north end near the tule reeds for bass and German
brown trout. The bait and lure fisherman like the area near the
small campgrounds at the dam and east side of the lake. I have caught
sizeable catfish in the four pound range near where the creek enters
the lake in the winter after filling my bag with cottontail rabbit
in the morning. The lake is planted with rainbow, German brown and
cutthroat trout every spring and once again before hunting season
in the fall. I’ve never seen anyone go home empty handed from
a fishing visit to this lake. Some of the trout get up to three
pounds and I’ve caught bass in the four pound range. Nymphs
and wooly buggers are best for fly fisherman and colors depend on
the sky and color of the water. Bait fishermen favor nightcrawlers
and lure fishermen have a ball with rooster tails and panther martins.
None of the campgrounds in the region have garbage cans or rest
facilities, so it is imperative you keep a clean camp and take out
what you take in.
The hills and canyons around the reservoir are
great for hiking, horseback riding and mountain biking. To the west
of the lake stands Poodle Mountain in the Buffalo Hills. If you
have a few days and a good topographic map you’ll find Sawmill
Canyon, Poodle Mountain Canyon, Jones Canyon on the east side of
Poodle Mountain and Tin Canyon, Stockade Canyon and Twin Springs
Canyon on the west side. Within these canyons in the Buffalo Hills
the sagebrush stands six feet high or more in places and in the
winter you can usually find pygmy and cottontail rabbit in such
abundance that filling your limit bag only takes an hour of hunting.
What I enjoy the most about the canyons and hills is its extreme
solitude. I’ve been on a horse for two weeks in the Buffalo
Hills and never even seen a plane fly over let alone heard a car
or seen another person.
North of Squaw Creek on NSR447 about 27 miles and
just past Duck Flat on your left, a dirt road veers east past a
windmill to Wall Canyon Reservoir. You must have a good four wheel
drive vehicle with heavy duty mud and snow tires to travel this
road. In some places, the slate and volcanic rock is so thick and
sharp that you could chop a bag of potatoes up just by dragging
it behind you. But the tough road is worth the drive once you reach
the lake. Most people like to fish from shore but if you have a
float tube and work a purple or black and red wooly bug near where
the creek runs in, you’ll catch and release ten to twenty
fish in a very short while. The biggest fish I’ve caught was
a four pound brown trout on a small dark nymph but a friend of mine
once caught a nine pound brown on a brass colored Little Cleo years
ago. The brown trout use the stream to spawn and do very well in
the reservoir because of all the food. On occasion when the ranchers
have almost depleted the water, the Nevada Fish and Game Commission
has been called in to save the fish. On one occasion several years
ago, they netted more than eleven thousand fish and moved them to
Squaw Creek. Some of the browns and rainbow-cutthroat trout were
quite large and made for fantastic fishing at Squaw Creek for those
in the know. The bass fishing is also pretty good but they never
get very big, probably because the brown trout is such a voracious
hunter.
Some of the little roads that come off NSR447 are
fun to explore including one just past Squaw Valley heading northeast
along Crutcher Canyon. It leads all the way north to the Lund Memorial
Petrified Forest and NSR34. There, you’ll see some fenced
in areas where Petrified logs protrude from the earth. I wrote of
this in the last column. You can also get to the NSR34 by taking
a road east just 22 miles past Squaw Valley on Lost Creek Road.
That road follows a canyon to a small pass and then down into Cottonwood
Creek and on to NSR34. From there you can go north to Vya or south
past Leadville and on south to Gerlach. If you stay on NSR447 north
from Squaw Creek, it turns into the Surprise Valley Road and ends
up in Cedarville, California. From there, you can take California
State Route 299 to Highway 395 south to Alturas, California. That
trip can make for a fun weekend roundabout drive from Reno to Gerlach
to Squaw Creek to Cedarville to Alturas and then back to Reno.
Next month we’ll take a trip on NSR447 past
Gerlach and west through the historic Smoke Creek Desert north of
Pyramid Lake. We’ll visit a place called Deep Hole and follow
the Smoke Creek Road to Sand Pass. You may recognize those names
in the news one day because a giant coal fired power plant is expected
to be built near there. I’ll also give you a glimpse of desert
valley life, the railroad and the history of the Smoke Creek in
the early 1900’s.
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