Community Forums

FL420 · 10-22-2020, 09:19 PM

...for Estes Park, Granby and nearby small mountain towns. Rocky Mountain National Park closed due to threatening fires.[emoji91]
Snow forecast for tonight may hopefully save them.[emoji3587]
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Wrascal · 10-22-2020, 09:26 PM

Fires AND snow, that's enough to keep me firmly in the deep south.

Here we always have several days warning so as to escape hurricanes.

twojayhawks · 10-23-2020, 07:42 AM

I've seen the video on the news and it's heartbreaking.

FL420 · 10-23-2020, 01:40 PM

All lands in the Arapahoe and Roosevelt National Forests are also closed.
There was no snow last night but it is now forecast for Sunday.

Tightwadted · 10-23-2020, 08:28 PM

Bummer, we spent a week boondocking and 4 wheelin' in that area just after Labor Day, was/is a beautiful area, lots of homes being built just outside the National Forest. Sorry for all those folks that live/work there.

Fanrgs · 10-24-2020, 08:04 AM

This morning, Larimer County issued a mandatory evacuation order for everyone west of CO 7 down to the north Boulder County line due to the East Troublesome Fire. That takes in most of the southern half of Rocky Mountain NP. And the Cameron Peak Fire continues to burn the northern part of RMNP.

On Thursday, the Troublesome fire went from 19,000 to 170,000 acres in 24 hours. That's 234 sq. miles in 24 hours, making it the second largest fire in Colorado history. At the same time that the largest one in our history is still burning at Cameron Peak. And up to 60 mph winds are predicted this afternoon as a cold front blows in from the north.

Weather at kickoff of the the Bronco-KC game tomorrow is predicted to be 20 degrees and snow. But, unfortunately, not enough snow to slow down either fire.

Anyone planning to visit Rocky Mountain NP next year will not see the same landscape that they would have seen this year.

profdan · 10-24-2020, 12:31 PM

The northeastern corner of the East Troublesome Fire has reached the hairpin turn area of the western part of Trail Ridge Road.

That's the bad news. The good news is that for the next few years, drivers will now have better sight lines while dealing with the hairpins.

I'm trying to look on the bright side here. There are so many beetle-killed trees in that area, just waiting to burn.

FL420 · 10-24-2020, 03:41 PM

Colorado Public Radio fire information webpage:[emoji91]
https://www.cpr.org/2020/10/23/east-...-map-shelters/
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Fanrgs · 10-24-2020, 08:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by profdan

The northeastern corner of the East Troublesome Fire has reached the hairpin turn area of the western part of Trail Ridge Road.

That likely means that Never Summer Ranch is gone, since the fire front also reached the northeast portion of Grand Lake. Glad we took some recent trips to Grand Lake, CO 125 over Willow Creek Pass, and from Parshall to Silverthorne up the Williams Fork and over Ute Pass. Between the Williams Fork Fire earlier this summer and the new East Troublesome Fire, much of the area we saw on those trips is now blackened timber.

In the '60s, I spent a summer surveying a road up Troublesome Creek for the Forest Service. That area is now the name of Colorado's second largest historical fire. During my remaining years, it will never be the forest I knew.

twogypsies · 10-24-2020, 10:43 PM

From the fire map it looks very close to Bear Lake Rd. - Glacier Basin and Moraine campgrounds. How sad. We volunteered there - gorgeous, popular area.

profdan · 10-25-2020, 10:17 AM

When we were in RMNP a few years ago, we talked to a ranger on the west side about the mix of living trees and dead ones, killed by the beetle. He said, "Take a good look. Be glad that you got to see the forest while it was still green. Enjoy it, because it is all going to burn, and it won't recover for many years."

His prophecy just came true.

Having said that, though, think about Yellowstone -- it had a terrible fire in 1988, and it looked pretty good when we were there a few years ago, even in the burned areas. There was a good crop of pines, mostly about fifteen to twenty feet high. So that's a partial recovery in 30 years, and probably a full recovery in 60 years.

MRUSA14 · 10-25-2020, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by profdan

When we were in RMNP a few years ago, we talked to a ranger on the west side about the mix of living trees and dead ones, killed by the beetle. He said, "Take a good look. Be glad that you got to see the forest while it was still green. Enjoy it, because it is all going to burn, and it won't recover for many years."

His prophecy just came true.

Having said that, though, think about Yellowstone -- it had a terrible fire in 1988, and it looked pretty good when we were there a few years ago, even in the burned areas. There was a good crop of pines, mostly about fifteen to twenty feet high. So that's a partial recovery in 30 years, and probably a full recovery in 60 years.

Some of us don't have 30 years to wait.....