Looks like you were at Olmsted Point in the evening — an excellent place to watch the fire over the ridge of Clouds Rest. (I stopped there at about 4:00 or so on my way out of the park.)
We were near the end of a 10-day back county photography trip in the northern half of the park when we say the beginnings of the fire on Sunday. Early in the morning, from our somewhat distant location, we saw a small puff of smoke on the ridge beyond Clouds Rest. Such things are not at all unusual this time of year, when management fires are common, and we had seen several others earlier. But by midday the smoke had grown quite a bit and was stretching to our location — and it was becoming increasingly clear that this fire was in a place frequented by park backcountry visitors.
As we descended a cross-county route from a higher location where we had been for five days, the smoke continued to build and we noticed more wind. Shortly before the bottom of our descent we were hit by some of the strongest wind gusts that I\'ve experience in the summer Sierra — the kind of \"stop and hold onto your hat\" and \"watch out for flying branches\" gusts that very much get your attention. Within an hour of the onset of the wind, the smoke plume blew up and soon the sun was nearly obliterated and ash (and even larger chunks of charcoal-like burned material) began to fall. The air was filled with smoke and the light became an eerie pink-yellow color.
In the evening, in camp, we were shocked to see a distant lightning flash — there had been no indication of such weather coming when we were in our higher vantage point — and soon we heard thunder. Fortunately, it wasn\'t long until light on-and-off rain began, and it continued into the next afternoon. If the weather had not changed so quickly, I hate to think of where that fire might have gone and how quickly.
We were near the end of a 10-day back county photography trip in the northern half of the park when we say the beginnings of the fire on Sunday. Early in the morning, from our somewhat distant location, we saw a small puff of smoke on the ridge beyond Clouds Rest. Such things are not at all unusual this time of year, when management fires are common, and we had seen several others earlier. But by midday the smoke had grown quite a bit and was stretching to our location — and it was becoming increasingly clear that this fire was in a place frequented by park backcountry visitors.
As we descended a cross-county route from a higher location where we had been for five days, the smoke continued to build and we noticed more wind. Shortly before the bottom of our descent we were hit by some of the strongest wind gusts that I\'ve experience in the summer Sierra — the kind of \"stop and hold onto your hat\" and \"watch out for flying branches\" gusts that very much get your attention. Within an hour of the onset of the wind, the smoke plume blew up and soon the sun was nearly obliterated and ash (and even larger chunks of charcoal-like burned material) began to fall. The air was filled with smoke and the light became an eerie pink-yellow color.
In the evening, in camp, we were shocked to see a distant lightning flash — there had been no indication of such weather coming when we were in our higher vantage point — and soon we heard thunder. Fortunately, it wasn\'t long until light on-and-off rain began, and it continued into the next afternoon. If the weather had not changed so quickly, I hate to think of where that fire might have gone and how quickly.
Dan
Sep 11, 2014 at 04:37 PM
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