The Big Hole, that is.... The Grand Canyon. Wildfires sweeping around the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park have closed the main access road to that beautiful and less bespoiled section of the huge national park. Meanwhile, lightning from "dry" thunderstorms, careless smokers, and -- in at least one case -- arsonists, combined with drought and high winds in the Southwest have caused numerous other major wild fires in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah including at least a dozen different fires scorching thousands of acres of the Navajo Nation.
Why is this midwestener so interested in these fires? They are all happening in many of the same places I rode through on my motorcycle trip home from Yearly Kos recently. Several of those fires were already taking hold when I was there just a couple weeks ago.
Wildfire started by lightning strike, a few miles from the Grand Canyon's North Rim, June 13, 2006
After the hot, exciting doings in Las Vegas June 8 - 11, I pointed the old Harley north and east through Zion National Park and then to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was, hot, dry, and very windy that whole week. Arizona Highway 64 through the Kaibab National Forest is the only access road to the Canyon's lesser visited and beautiful North Rim. We saw many fire crews trying to contain several different fires along the way. like the one above that licked at both sides of the road.
In two places on Hwy 64 we were halted by fire crews and told to wait for an escort vehicle to guide us through the heavy smoke. One disadvantage to being on a motorcyle was that I couldn't take any photos as we rode through the thick, choking smoke. Suffice to say, it wasn't a lot of fun and about a half mile into it, it was hard to see the taillights of the car ahead of me, let alone breathe.
Waiting for our escort through a fire
My hat is off to the dedicated, underpaid and very brave men and women we saw working to contain these fires. I had a chance to meet with the regional Forest Service firefighter manager at one of the stops. He said these particular fires were caused by lightning and they were attempting to manage them by letting them burn away accumulated brush and some of the thick confer growth. Ultimately, these natural fires can a good thing, he explained, as they help restore the natural balance of the forest, clearing away underbrush and pines and allowing for the growth of aspens and other high country decidious trees that formerly dominated the area before the days of human intervention. There were numerous fires in and around the Grand Canyon at that time, and much of the haze we saw hanging in the canyon itself was probably caused by smoke from these fires.
Smoky haze hanging over the Canyon.
They were all being controlled at that time but, he warned us, there weren't any guarantees that those "managed" fires would remain that way. It had been so dry in the region for so long that the "red flag advisory" winds plaguing the entire southwest that week could whip them into full fledged out of control wildfires.
5x zoom of Canyon bottom from Point Royal, North Rim (note Colorado River, lower right, about 8 miles from the Rim.
And that's exactly what's been happening for the past couple of weeks.
We also rode through portions of the Navajo Nation in Arizona and Utah on June 14 and 15. There were eight wildfires over 2300 acres in the Nation at that time. Luckily none of these threatened any people just then. But the number of fires and the danger to people has increased in the intervening days.
The headlines before yKos focused on a big fire threatening suburban areas just south of Flagstaff, Arizona and later in the canyons of Sedona further south. I had ridden through that area on my way out to Vegas when those fires were just starting but I don't have any pics of them.
I'd love to hear from Kossians who live in the southwest and news of these fires now. It's hard for many of us who live in the other parts of the country (where it rains now and again) to appreciate how dangerous these things can be and how fast they can destroy huge areas of both wilderness and populated areas.