Fire!

The last few weeks have been pretty crazy, as two big fires have been dominating the news and our air quality out here.  The High Park fire west of Ft. Collins and the Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado Springs have been greatly affecting our air (as seen below), but we also just had a fire break out on the western side of the ridge here in Boulder.  At one point, the flames actually jumped to the east side of the ridge, which is scary.  This is what happens when it is super dry, we get no snow, and there is entirely too many dead trees from Pine beetle kill.

It's crazy stuff, and I'm worried to see what the long term damage for these areas will be.

Smoke from the Flagstaff fire rising above Bear Peak and Shadow Canyon.  The fire is currently burning right on one of my favorite trails, that you access by running up the canyon in the center of the picture between the peaks.

Another of the smoke above Shadow Canyon and Bear Peak.

Here you can see the plumes of smoke from where the flames actually jumped to the east side of the ridge, and the trees right under Bear Peak were burning.

This was on the 4th of July, and may look like nothing, but you should be able to see for miles, and all the way up towards Summit County.  Because of the wind patterns, the smoke from Colorado Springs a 2 hour drive south) was so thick it was limiting visibility to about 2 miles.  Needless to say, fireworks were canceled.

This is a hawk I saw on a bike ride.  No connection, but I liked this bird.