Squaw Rock, on Highway 101 between Cloverdale and Ukiah, was an obligatory stop on any trip to Grandma and Grandpa Penna's place in Calpella. Usually, we'd just get out to stretch our legs and gaze upward at the towering cliff. While doing so, perhaps we'd contemplate the legend which gave the geological phenomenon its name. That being the tragic tale of the beautiful Indian maiden who flung herself off the precipice whilst in the throes of jealousy over the handsome young brave who had wronged her. I know the idea of plummeting headlong off the top and bashing your brains out on the boulders below aroused a certain morbid fascination in my childhood mind.

When I became a rockhound, we'd search the riverbed for mineral treasures. It had become my life's ambition to find a geode. I never did, probably because I never looked in the right kind of place. Scroll down to view this activity.