Just as we were trying to figure out if the fire was near the campground we came to a wide spot on the road where a dozen or more cars were pulled off taking pictures.
We of course pulled over for Jim to get pictures and someone I spoke with pointed out a sign board that had been set up with information about the fire's location, we checked it out and learned that West Fork Camping area was still open so we headed on up the hill.
What a hill it turned out to be. When we finally reached the summit we were at 10,850 feet. The MH it turns out does not like climbing that steep of a grade. For the first time ever we overheated the poor thing. We ended up pulling off the road three times to let the engine cool down.
Jim was so busy taking pictures of the smoke that he only got this one shot of the hill we climbed.
If you are able to enlarge this picture you can just see the road where we originally started our trip up. The road runs just on the left side of the clearing that you see in the little valley.
As we approached the summit we became aware the we were actually between two fires. The smaller of the two fires on our right was the Windy Ridge fire.
The larger fire on our right was called the West Fork fire.
The closer we got to our destination the clearer it became that we would not be camping at West Fork, regardless of what the information board said.
At this point on our trip I was not feeling good about driving through the area, let alone stopping to camp, so we just kept going on down the road.
Through the smoke
and into the town of South Fork.
We stayed at a rest area at the far end of South Fork and watched a sunset made beautiful by the smoke in the air.
No comments:
Post a Comment