Our family recently took a two-week vacation in Squamish. Here’s what I noticed, as an outsider from the San Francisco Bay area, about your town:
The Good: One day, we met a couple from Ireland, who are working in Whistler for the summer.
I asked, “How did you decide to come here all the way from Ireland?”
They said, “The mountain biking here is the best in the world.”
We met a kayaker who regaled us with stories of kayaking down the great rivers of Africa, Asia and South America.
I asked, “How do you come to be living in Squamish?”
He said, “The kayaking here is the best in the world.”
At the Zephyr Cafe, a local asked me why I had visited Squamish three times in the last 15 months. I said, “The rock climbing here is the best in the world.”
OK, there is Yosemite. It’s only three hours from where I live. We can argue about which has the best rock climbing. But you can’t argue about all that Squamish has going for it.
Yosemite has beautiful rock, mountains and trees. Squamish has all that, plus Howe Sound and proximity to Vancouver and the coast.
Yosemite has world-class rock climbing. Squamish has all that, plus world-class mountain biking, world-class kayaking and a host of other water and mountain sports.
Squamish trumps Yosemite, hands down, wouldn’t you agree?
The Bad: Housing prices. This was all the buzz around town during our vacation, and was striking even to a visitor from our expensive Bay Area. Enough said.
The Ugly: During one of our backroad wanderings, just 15 minutes from town, we came upon hillsides of clear-cut forests.
Only huge slash-piles remained. My family was shocked into silence.
In Yosemite, most of the giant sequoias were destroyed long ago. It was under a stand of sequoias that John Muir sought their protection. There he met with Theodore Roosevelt, and America’s National Park System was born 100 years ago.
I like to think of Squamish and Yosemite as soul mates. A twosome of enchanting places, unlike any others on earth.
Yosemite’s tree-cutting past doesn’t have to be Squamish’s future.
Why is so much logging still happening here?
These trees are more valuable to your region alive than dead.
As with the Lorax, we need to speak for the trees.
Michele Gibson,
Palo Alto, Calif.
