Several miles north of us, where the road ends about 12 miles from the Canadian Border in the Okanogan National Forest, is the site of a devastating fire in 2001.
This memorial was erected in honor of the 4 young lives that were lost that day. It seems that nearly everyone visiting the site wants to leave some momento of their visit. I have never before seen such a display.
This is the view of the valley across the road from the memorial, now 8 years after the fire! It still looks devastating, but the forest is renewing itself.
We were reminded of our visit to this site last night, as all day we commented on how hazy it seemed to be, and then toward dusk, it seemed to get heavier. The sunset was weird colors, the result of the smoke in the air from fires several miles away. There is one fire a few miles west that is being watched, but not fought, as it is no danger to anyone, and in an area that is difficult to reach.
We now have a "no campfire" status even in the campground where we water every day, and some days, we observe helicopters flying over with their water buckets, heading out to help with the fire fighting efforts. There is a Smoke Jumpers Base just 5 miles south of us, we drove by yesterday. Lots of activity, helicopters standing by, just waiting to be called into action. Let's hope they aren't.
3 comments:
What a moving memorial! I was getting shivers just reading and seeing the pictures. We will hope that there are no devastating fires in the near future.
People this side of the Mississippi really don't understand about major forest fires. Glad that you are safe!
We lived in the Seattle are when this fire happened and remember how big and devastating it was, especially with the major loss of life. Shortly after this fire and the firefighters being killed, there was another bad fire in CO I think that killed another couple of firefighters. It was a major loss between the two fires of the fire fighting force.
Post a Comment