A couple days ago I posted some pictures of the smokey sunset. Tonight I looked up at the moon and noticed that it looked like it was made out of chocolate, instead of cheese. I took a few pictures at different shutter speeds and couldn’t decided which one I liked the best. So, I just decided to post them all.
About 40 miles (64km) southwest of us there is a 12,000 acre wildfire burning. Since, for the most part, our weather pattern comes from the southwest, the smoke is funneling right into our valley. Makes for hazy days and sore throats. But also some nice sunset shots. Here are some of mine from tonight.
Just for the record – I did absolutely no color enhancement on these at all. Cropping, the frame and the copyright is all.
Yesterday I drove 60 miles out into the west desert in order to get within 8 miles of a mountain that is on fire.
This morning I woke up to find out that 19 firefighters were killed fighting a wildfire in Arizona.
Wildfires are a part of life out here in the arid west, we even have a fifth season, known as “Wildfire Season”. It’s so routine that I, for one, take for granted the hard work and danger these firefighters put themselves into getting them under control. So, before I go babbling on about my excursion along the old Pony Express trail, I just want to thank them all for the work they do, and give my condolences to the family, friends and neighbors of those 19 firefighters.
There are a lot of people complaining that they are grinding up the pavement along the Pony Express trail and replacing it with a gravel road. After driving along it yesterday, I’m glad they are.
Along the gravel road, the new one and the part that has been gravel for years, I was able to go about 50mph, without beating up my Jeep. On the paved road I had to slow down to about 30mph in order to swerve to the left and to the right to miss all the potholes.
I went up over Lookout Point and down into the valley west of the Tooele valley, around the mountain and got to a point within 8 miles of the fire. I took out my telephoto lens and got these pictures.
The plane, heading back to get more of whatever it was dumping on the fire.
A ranger, presumably headed out to the fire, that stopped to make sure that I wasn’t broken down out there in the middle of nowhere.
I decided to take the slower, more rustic route from where I was back to the Pony Express Trail.
This sign made me think of Stephen King, and although I looked for it, I couldn’t find the pet cemetery.
50 miles from a city of any size, 7 miles west of Vernon, Utah, I found what looked like the beginnings of a gated community. Yeah, definitely a need for high security way out here.
And this house along Highway 36 doesn’t have quite the same security measures, but I bet you could get it pretty cheap.
Got up this morning to go to my annual physical* and my cars were covered with a lite dusting of ash. Last night’s hypothesis confirmed.
One thing I’ve learned playing around with my infrared camera is that night pictures aren’t that cool. I can take more interesting pictures with my regular camera, a tripod and a low shutter speed.
Day pictures, on the other hand, can be pretty cool. Here are a few from today.
*”Obamacare” has already saved me $20. No more co-pay for annual physicals.
I was playing around with the infrared camera out on the front deck and noticed what looked like snow going past on the camera’s screen. (It’s not an SLR, you have to use the viewing screen to aim the camera.)
So I put it into video mode and captured a few flakes coming down. With the naked eye I couldn’t see anything, but since I already noticed the smell of a wildfire coming through the swamp cooler, I figure what the camera is seeing is ashes from the wildfire that is right outside the southern end of the Salt Lake valley.
What do you think? Can you think of something else it could be? I’m going to test my hypothesis later, when the fire is out, by taking the camera out again and seeing if these things show up again. If they do, then I’ll have to rethink it. If not, then there’s a good possibility I am right.
The Quail Fire is right on the other side of the mountains that boarder the south end of the Salt Lake Valley. It’s burning right outside the town of Alpine, in Utah County, and they’ve had to evacuate 80 homes in the foothills.
I took these pictures from the park that is just a couple blocks from my house.
The governor had to call in the National Guard because all the other firefighters are busy at other fires. I just want to thank all those people that are sweating their butts off trying to keep the entire state from burning up.
WE NEED SOME RAIN! so these people can get a rest.
I’m sure that there are people out there that are incensed that our governor banned fireworks outside of the city limits.
I’m also, sadly, sure that there are people who are going to completely ignore the danger and the ban.
I hope they can find them and make them pay for all the costs that are incurred by the fire they are going to start.
The latest article I read says we have 6 fires still burning, covering over 121,000 acres of land. Close to, or even more than, 200 homes (and cabins) have been destroyed and I know of at least one life that has been lost.
From what I’ve read a whole 3 (about 30%) of the fires were caused by natural phenomena. That makes the other 70% caused by human mistakes and/or stupidity.
Update – Thanks to the link Lisa gave in her comment, I have a more accurate count on Human vs. Nature wildfires (Note: Previous stats were on all major wildfires that made the news. The new stats include all reported wildfires):
| Fires | % | Acres | % | |
| Human | 393 | 90% | 99,172 | 91% |
| Lightning | 45 | 10% | 9,330 | 9% |
| Total | 438 | 108,502 |
Maybe, just maybe, people will think before they set off fireworks and just not do it. We’ll see.