Friday, July 14, 2006

My Beloved Wilderness is Burning

We just got home from Colorado today, and the San Gorgonio Wilderness, the one right outside my door, the one I wrote my thesis on, is burning. You may have seen the story on the news. As we drove across the desert towards home, we first smelled, then saw the smoke of the fire. We were first to the east of it, along Highway 62 in Yucca Valley, where many homes and buildings were burned down, and were in awe of the expanse of this fire. It started as four different fires, one of which started only 5-6 miles from our home. By this afternoon, they had all merged into one, and so far over 55,000 acres have burned. About a quarter of those acres are in the San G Wilderness, and more are threatened. The Forest Service has closed "the mountain," meaning no hikers are allowed in the wilderness.

Our home isn't threatened, even with the fire this close - we live to the west, and the fire is burning northeast. Even Big Bear, which the media had reported as being in danger, is really not - and the firefighters hope the fire continues north back down the mountains to the desert where it will (hopefully) run out of fuel. Who knows? Creosote and Joshua Trees burn pretty easily.

Just wanted to vent and to let everyone know we're in no danger.

2 comments:

Deetsa said...

*hugs* Hope everything takes a turn for the better than a turn for the worst

Kalyn Denny said...

Glad you are ok.