Tuesday we drove north on Hwy 395 to John Day. Sixty miles of mountains and valleys along a scenic two-lane blacktop. The first 40 miles are still that way, past Idlewild, through the little settlement of Seneca, up into the next set of mountains. Until we came to the fire area. The Canyon Creek Complex fire started with two lightning strikes on Aug 14 and it still burns. The fire whirled and swirled on either side of Hwy 395 for about 8 miles blowing sparks, jumping, and roaring around the mountainsides and valleys burning homes, and homesites along Hwy 395 which spits the valley from the base of the pass into Canyon City. I heard that the fire roared sown that valley lke a freight train, twisting and spinning and throwing out fire balls in all directions.
As we drove the route we were sickened by what we observed. We saw piles of ashes where homes had been. Rubble with just a chimney standing. We saw homes with blackened areas all around them and yet, untouched. We saw a few green areas and then large black areas. Whole hillsides had trees throughly burned. It was like a war zone and a residential area mixed together. I did not take photos of the homesites. I thought it would have been in poor taste.
On the way back south we noticed that the CC fire had flaired up again. It's almost totally burning in the Strawberry Wilderness area now. Lets hope the upcoming cool weather will fire fighters.
No comments:
Post a Comment