After the fire

[jfr]

Last weekend I took some photos of the burn areas in Tahquitz Valley from just SE of peak 9384, from the Lotus Campsite in Round Valley. The fire burned right to the top of the ridge, but miraculously stopped before the campsite itself. (OK, so it was firefighters and aircraft that stopped it, not miracles, unless you count the 1.5 inches of rain that fell as a miracle.) Some of the following photos are panoramas that were stitched together from many individual photos, and extend over a 180 degree field of view. I uploaded the full-sized versions to flickr, so that interested folks can see the aftermath of the fire up close, as it were. Some of those files are quite large, up to 17 megabytes in size.

The photos were taken from this location.



The Lotus Campsite, untouched by fire until you walk beyond that ridgeline.



Final extent of the fire



Looking south from the Lotus Campsite, Toro Peak in the far distance.
To view full size (15MB)



Final extent of the fire



Looking south toward Red Tahquitz.
To view full size (8MB)



180-plus degree panorama shot.
To view full size (17MB)



Looking down into the Willow Creek drainage.
To view full size (10MB)


Obviously, there were significant amounts of trees whose crowns burned, but there is a lot more green down in Tahquitz Valley than I was expecting.

I sure hope we'll get to see plenty of post-fire wildflowers blooming everywhere in that valley next summer.

[Hikin_Jim]

Smart move to hike up to the top of Hidden/Wellman Divide, jfr! Now, why didn't I think of that?

I continue to be encouraged by the various photos that I've seen. The fire damage is a lot less catastrophic than I feared.

HJ