The High Park Fire

On Saturday morning, June 9th, at 9:00 a.m., Rylan and I were on our way to karate.  Our drive is southbound, just a couple miles east of the foothills, along a wide stretch of openspace.  We noticed, up in the foothills, a thin, black smoke plume up snaking its way towards the sky.  We watched it again when we made our return trip home an hour later.  It was definitely bigger.

And so it began.  Over the next three weeks that little fire, sparked by a lightning strike, grew into an 87,000 acre wildfire, consuming some of the most picturesque landscape in all of northern Colorado.  It came dangerously close to our most favorite playground of all: the Red Feather Lakes district.  It also spared the boy scout and girl scout camps, my old Campfire camp which is now the Shambala Center, Mishiwaka and a few other landmarks along the way.  But.  In the meantime, 259 homes/structures have been destroyed, along with long stretches of forest land, portions of campgrounds, hiking trails, bridges and logging roads.  The fire reached 100% containment over a couple of weeks ago, and we have finally been blessed with some rain, after a solid five week dry spell.  Although now the rain is causing its own problems.

We live exactly two miles from the base of the foothills.  There are three neighborhoods between us and the mountains.  As soon as the fire began to grow, the smoke settled upon our city.  The winds would shift constantly, and the smoke would get so thick you would choke, and then it would clear and you could see blue sky.  Our clothes smelled constantly of smoke.  We couldn't open the windows at night because of the dense smoke that would settle in the low areas.  At times ash would fall from the sky and it would look vaguely like it was snowing.  We are situated in the flight path of the airport, so all day long there would be air tankers, slurry bombers, Black Hawks, helicopters and helitankers flying overhead.  (the kids thought that was pretty cool)  It was hot, dry and windy each and every day.  Some days the plume looked like a monster.  Other days you couldn't see a plume at all - it was just a haze.  And still other days you couldn't see any smoke - yet the smell was still there.  Everything outside is covered with a light layer of ashy soot - from the water sprinklers pulling it from the air.  There was one day, in the early days of the fire, when I was truly afraid that it might jump the gap near the end of the long, narrow reservoir that lies just one foothill away from our city, and hook around and blaze through the neighborhoods at the south end of town - and head towards us.  When I saw that another wildfire, the Waldo Canyon fire down near Colorado Springs, did the exact same thing a few days later, I knew my fears weren't for not.  It's easy to feel safe and complacent, but at times a wildfire can be too big and too powerful for the scores of firefighters risking their lives to keep people safe and protect homes.

It was so hard to concentrate on our day-to-day lives, when so many were displaced and still others had already lost everything.  I so wanted to extend a hand and take in some animals or a family or...do something ... but life doesn't really afford me that ability right now, other than dropping off donations of basic goods to help the displaced families start over.  I can't wrap my head around the level of destruction that lies just 10-15 miles to the west of us.  Entire neighborhoods - small mountain enclaves that you never knew were there, gone.  The area was known for its rolling hills, wide valleys, small meadows, horse paddocks, marshes, forest, curving roads, cattle pasture, mountain peaks in all directions, ponds with beaver dams...  My kids got to see it once, last year when we went for a drive and the day turned south when we came upon a single motorcycle accident.  Now the area is stripped bare and left blackened - for decades and decades to come.  I am lucky that my only loss is a pretty view - and I feel really lame complaining about that when others have lost so much more.  But it really is a community loss - and we all feel it and are affected by it in different ways.  The mountains are what makes this area the great place it is!

June 11th, 2012  Day 2 of fire

Looking NW from daycamp, a recreation spot located 10 miles SE of where we live

June 13, 2012  Day 4 of fire

Same view from camp, looking NW.  Fire is advancing NE towards Bellvue and S/SE towards Buckhorn and Masonville

Later that day, view from Carpenter Rd. & Lemay Ave.  Black smoke indicates fire has reached a high-fuel area - most likely a beetlekill zone.

June 14, 2012  Day 5 of fire

Just a shot to show the incredible firefight that has been going on overnight.  The smoke plumes from the day before are gone.

June 17, 2012  Day 8 of fire

View from backyard.  Feeling nervous today.  It is has been very hot, dry and windy.

View from my dad's street, 3 miles NE of where we live.

June 25, 2012  Day 16 of fire

Horsetooth Reservoir, looking NW.  Smoke has filled entire valley.  Fire is at about 80% containment.

Down by swimbeach on the east side, looking directly across to the west.  This area was okay.

Same spot, panning towards the north.  You can see the border of the burn area.  A friend has a home just below the burn area - they were very lucky. 

Moved north along the reservoir and saw a helicopter stopping to fill its bucket, so I hopped out to snap a photo.

It was actually delivering the water to a truck to refill its tank.  (Here is an awesome picture of a Bambi bucket in action with this fire)  The truck was at the temporary camp set up for a portion of the scores of firefighters that have pored in from surrounding states to help.  The camp is situated near the NE edge of the reservoir - here is another picture of how close they were situated to the fire.

Same spot, looking north at Soldier Dam, and beyond that, the town of Bellvue.

We drove through Bellvue, relieved to see that the fire had been kept largely at bay in the immediate area, and drove on to the Poudre River for some time to cool off and play after our drive.  We also collected water samples.

We drove south, and passed by the entrance to the temporary fire camp, and saw tons of people holding signs and cheering as fire fighters began to arrive for the 12 hour shift-change.  It was a heart-warming sight to see, but I chose not to take a picture.  I snapped a photo of the sunset instead.

This last set of pictures was the first time that we have ventured out to see any of the fire damage.  I don't want to be branded a looky-loo, and it is important to stay out of the way of those who are doing their job.  It's frightening to think about close this fire came to our community.  Neighborhood after neighborhood was evacuated - places I had been multiple times throughout my time here and still others I had never heard of.  The childhood homes of my school friends were in danger.  The dirt roads where I practiced my driving skills, the hiking trails... the memories.

And then I think about all those families that are displaced now that their homes and livelihoods are destroyed.  It brought forth the awful thoughts about what it would be like to lose everything - except what you managed to take with you in your car.  I thought about it last week as I cleaned out the remainder of non-clothing 'stuff' from our family closet - clearing out all of my mementos so I could store them elsewhere.  My scrapbooks, photo albums, old letters, birthday cards, family heirlooms, journals and calendars, books and so forth.  Several boxes worth.  I could not imagine trying to take it all with me - there would not be enough room!  But how awful it would feel to lose all of that.  I just couldn't bare it.  How could you possibly prioritize?  And what if you weren't home?  What if you left for work and then found out your neighborhood had been evacuated?  Your pets are at home, along with all of the items they say you should take with you - papers, photos, prescriptions, personal computer and so forth.  It is awful to see the anguish on people's faces when they are turned away at a roadblock, and their livestock is in harm's way.  It is tough on either end - I know that safety is paramount - but it is gut-wrenching to hear about situations like that.


Last week we took a drive as soon as Dean got home from work.  I wanted water samples for our water study from the river right in the burn area, and I felt enough time had passed that we could drive through the area and not be a total nuisance.  I was actually pleasantly surprised by what we could see from the road - but I know that we didn't drive through the areas that were hit the worst.

We headed north on CR 27 (Buckhorn Rd) from Masonville toward Hwy 14 and the Poudre River.  This was one of the first patches of burn that we saw..

The fire topped the ridge to the east, working its way through a large stand of beetle-kill..

This is why I love this road - it is so beautiful!  Some areas looked pretty bad, but then there were remarkable stretches such as this... so all is not lost.

Again and again we marveled at some of the miraculous saves that the fire crews made.  This is one of the largest horse barns in the area.  They evidently held their ground.  Amazing!

There were lots of strange scorch marks everywhere you looked...

We think that the fire crews set the underbrush on fire in this area to remove the fuel.  Almost all of the trees we saw in 'unburned' areas were scorched at the base.

And yet, just barely two weeks after the fire... grass!

The view from Poudre Canyon, at Stove Prairie Landing, looking east.

On our way to the river to take a water sample.  Note the burn area just above Jordan.

Yuck... (gosh how I love pudgy toddler feet though!)

The mud had a very strange consistency - it was like Oobleck!

One of the areas where the fire jumped the river.

The entrance road to Mountain Park Campground, my stomping grounds in childhood.  The fire reached the very southern side of the campground, but no real damage was done.

The large rock formations that are above the campground.  I can remember hiking up to them as a kid - and I thought it was soooo far...  I think it is just bizarre how the fire was so sporadic in where it spread.

So there you have it.  This is has been my preoccupation for the past six weeks.  The hot, dry summer season isn't over yet, but I hope that with the fire bans continuing to stay in place, that we avoid any more fire in the area for the rest of the season.  This particular fire was started by a lightning strike that smoldered for a couple of days before it erupted into flames that Saturday morning back on June 9th.  But that is all it takes.  A careless toss of a cigarette butt.  An errant gun shell.  A gas stove.  A hot exhaust manifold...  All of these were culprits of starting fires in Colorado this summer.  Be careful out there!

Only YOU can prevent forest fires!