My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, coffee life, spirituality and the mystery of it all.
We now have a forest fire about 60 miles west that is affecting us smoke. This was taken last night at Reservoir Ridge Natural Area. Here is a link to the fire status. This morning we can definitely smell the smoke as it hovers over the city. Sure has an eerie feel to it.
It has been cold the past few days. The 15 inch snowfall we had has not melted due to the cold temperatures. However, there is hope over this weekend as we could reach 50 degrees. I will not complain as there is major weather stuff happening all over the world that’s destroying peoples homes and massive amounts of land. It’s almost incomprehensible that almost 7 millions acres have burned in Australia.
It was hazy all day yesterday due to smoke from all the forest fires burning. I drove out east of town hoping to see a red sunset and to get out of the city. This image does not show the intense orange of the sun through the smoke. Hope you have a super Awesome Sunday!
Back in 2004 I made a road trip on my motorcycle to the west coast. During the 3 week trip I road 4200 miles. I drove down the northwest coast of Washington into Oregon, ate seafood in Seattle and tried to cover as many National Parks as I could fit into the schedule. I camped along the road except for 4 four nights, setting up camp primarily in National Parks.
I only scheduled one afternoon and night in Glacier National Park which is not near enough time to really see the park. I setup camp in one of the campgrounds near Lake McDonald but for the life of me can’t remember which one. The previous year was one of the worst seasons of fire in Glacier National Park. A 136,00 acres were burned that year. One of the largest fires was the Roberts Fire, which burned 57,570 acres, that is near the lake. I could see the barren and naked landscape across the lake. There was a fire burning nearby, causing a haze to settle into the lower valleys of the park.
It’s cold outside this evening so I’m going through my archives and found this image that caused me to remember the trip. I wrote about this trip before and have a color image or the lake, if you care to check it out. I converted this image to black and white with Silver Efex Pro using one of the presets then making a few simple adjustments in Lightroom 4.
A final thought : I have in the past wished we had more respect for nature but I think I would rather we understood that “we are nature.”
As the fires rage in the Northwest the smoke drifts to the eastward, we are seeing the effects of these fires along the Colorado Front Range. Our sunrises and sunsets are turning the sun into a red ball. It is pretty to the eye but sad to know what is causing it. My sister and brother-in-law have been traveling in their RV. They say the smoke in Glacier National Park is very heavy. I took this sunset image last week while I was at the Prairie House.
The above image I took along the east side of Horsetooth Reservoir yesterday evening of the Galena Fire. It is way too early to begin having forest fires, especially after last year. They suspect this was cause by man which makes it even more painful. Let’s hope we do not have the same season as last year. In the lower right portion you can see some of the flames as the flare up.
This image is taken from the south looking north towards the fire. This south end has several homes and the harbor area for the reservoir. As you can see the smoke is drifting to the east and settling on the city of Fort Collins. Everything smells like smoke and we can find ash on our cars in town. Have a super weekend.
I apologize for the quality of this image but I want to post it anyway. It is my attempt at showing the size of this fire. I am probably 20-25 miles from the High Park Fire that has been burning since last Saturday morning. It is located just west of Fort Collins along the foothills. Here is a bit of information about the fire. The fire is burning and has burned all the area from about an inch on either side of this image. Here is a link to some better images.
The fire has now burned 52,000 acres. They are using nine helicopters and fixed-winged aircraft and over 1,300 fire fighters along with the help of the National Guard. Over 100 structures have burned – 48 of those being hones. In the above image you can see rain clouds on the left. However, this thunder cell created downdrafts, not rain, which stirred up embers that jumped the Poudre River at Stevens Gulch and is heading towards the Glacier View Meadows Neighborhood. Not good. We so need the rain!