A New Wildfire is Burning in Northern Colorado

Yesterday as I summited a ridge, I could hardly believe what I saw in the distance - a new forest fire! It is burning in Colorado about three miles south of the Wyoming border, and the high winds we are experiencing in the high country have caused the fire to explode in size.

When I got down into internet range yesterday evening, I saw that the fire (the Beaver Creek Fire) was at about 850 acres in size. When I researched it just now, I saw that it had grown to 3800 acres! I am somewhat concerned, because it is burning just north of one of my favorite backpacking destinations in the Park Range - the Seven Lakes area. However, that region is FULL of beetle-killed Lodgepole Pine and Engelmann Spruce trees. Subalpine Fir is just about the only species that is thriving.

What amazes me is the fact that we went from having a surplus of snow in the mountains (where the fire is burning, it was 140% of the normal snowpack) to now having HIGH fire danger on account of the high temps (it was 96 degrees in Fort Collins yesterday - a record for June 21st) - and fires like this!

www.denverpost.com/2016/06/21/wildfire-walden-grows-to-500-acres/