Squire Creek Pass via Eight-mile Trail — Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022

ROAD: A 6-mile typical, rough, rocky, narrow forest service road. Not many pullouts for passing. Decent clearance recommended or drive very slow and careful.

TRAILHEAD: Room for maybe 10 cars if everyone parks correctly (don’t park parallel to the road in the middle of the parking lot or you may get penned in).  There is a pit toilet down the hill (opposite side of the road from the information/register kiosk). 

TRAIL: This is a tough hike.  Less than 3 miles makes it sound easy, but it’s not.  It’s steep, rocky, rooty, muddy, and narrow. The first mile is not too bad with obvious trail work in areas. There are some nice big old trees in this section.  At about one mile, traverse below Three O’clock Rock (popular climbing area) and begin the toughest part of the hike. This next mile or so is really rough. Then at about 2 miles, reach the fun part of the hike: crossing numerous slabs through meadows filled with huckleberries.  Early season, the slabs are flowing with water, but this late in the season, there were only stagnate, evaporating ponds. The pond water was not very appealing for drinking so be sure to pack plenty of water.

Cairns have been placed on the larger slab traverses making it easy to follow the correct path to the pass.  The pass is a delightful place to spend a considerable amount of time. Excellent views of Three Fingers and Whitehorse. Plenty of sitting and lounging rocks. No one else on the trail after Three O’Clock Rock. Not many bugs. Lots of huckleberries. It was a fun hike to a beautiful view and worth the effort in our opinion.