Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

These pix were taken the evening of Friday, July 3:

I wasn’t going to go to Spring Creek Basin on Friday. Just watching the smoke from a relatively safe vantage, I *cannot* even begin to fathom the strength and accompanying exhaustion of the firefighters, the law-enforcement rangers, officers, deputies, residents evacuating the Ferris Fire (and others around the region; we’re all in our own communities of what-ifs and fears and plannings). Then, in the evening, the smoke did one of those giant plumes on the west/southwestern side (where it crossed the Dolores River), and my journalist brain kicked in (journalist brain = aka nosy-nellie = aka curiosity-never-hurt-anybody, eh?), and out I went. Above: From Chrome’s Point at the western side of Spring Creek Basin, looking nearly straight south, see the plane above the treed ridge (that’s the south ridgeline of Disappointment Valley at the lower-ish southwestish end/side of the valley)? I regularly use Chrome’s Point to glass a big swath of the big basin that IS Spring Creek Basin, and from there, I heard the drone of a big plane (air tanker), and to my surprise, I actually saw it. It was much higher when I first spotted it, flying from right (west) to left (east) … then it banked to go south, and as you see it above, it’s turning east/southeast again and just about to drop out of sight. Again, there’s a fair (!) amount of distance between the fire and the basin, so there was no way I’d see it drop its load of retardant slurry … but I’m sure you can find impressive videos online of those pilots doing that amazing work.

This was as backed out as my big lens could go to give you a view – and context – of the western end of Filly Peak at left, the straight-south, far southern ridge(s) of Disappointment Valley and Friday evening’s blowup of the west/southwest side of the Ferris Fire, burning south of Disappointment and Spring Creek Basin in northern Montezuma County (where it started) and right up the westish-middle of Dolores County. San Miguel County is the next county north, and that’s where this part (and most of) Spring Creek Basin is located. … Interestingly, though I thought I hadn’t caught the plane in this image, when I was way zoomed in on the computer to clone out (dratted) dust spots, I’m pretty sure I actually spotted it, juuuuuust above the tree line at far right. Again, the pix above are from Friday evening.

This is a very wide-angle phone shot from Disappointment Road looking south/southeast/eastish, earlier in the evening than I took the pix above from inside the basin. The familiar landmarks of Brumley Point, Temple Butte and McKenna Peak are at far left. That is really not something you want to see – that kind of super-active fire activity! – but flames on the hillside south of your home has to be about a billion times worse (see below).

The Ferris Fire now is up to 41,337 acres, and containment has dropped to 7 percent as the fire has grown (as of Saturday night). A staggering “500 personnel are now working the fire. A Complex Incident Management Team has been ordered to provide additional management and logistical support.” That information is from a 7:30 p.m. July 4 report on Watch Duty (if you live in the West, or know people who do, for goodness sake, download it to your phone if you can; it’s massively informative, and the network they have to report on so many fires is nothing short of amazing).

As of Saturday, July 4 (hope you all celebrated Independence Day safely!), maybe Friday (?), Disappointment Road is closed to through traffic. From the west, heading up-valley-southeast, the closure is at the old Perkins corrals; coming down-valley, northwest from the Dolores-Norwood Road, the closure is just above/southeast of Ryman Creek Road. Ryman Creek and Black Snag roads already are closed. In its run north, the fire bypassed Benchmark Lookout (thankfully being aggressively protected by firefighters; if you’re on Instagram, follow @benchmark_rick; Rick and his wife, Linda, staff the tower during fire season … it’s so crazy that they’re not actually there during this fire, but thank goodness they’re safe! they’re helping with supplies at the Salter Y Spike Camp) and started down/north toward Disappointment Valley on Friday night. Up-valley neighbors watched actual flames, as did (at least) San Miguel County deputies, who were stationed up there until around midnight. Smoke is bad enough … seeing flames on the hillside south of your home … I can’t imagine. 😦

Today’s big shoutout goes to San Miguel County Undersheriff Nick Xavier, who, along with deputies Todd Rector, Derek Kibel and Jeremy Platt, and Dolores County deputy Branson Smith, has been keeping me updated about the fire in this neck of the Disappointment Valley piñon-juniper woods. Along with above-and-beyond information-sharing by my BLM range guy Ryan Schroeder (Anton Rambur and Laura Heaton are on the fire), my gratitude is high to all of these folks for keeping calm and keeping eyes and ears on the situation.

From Undersheriff Xavier’s mention of pix he saw, three links to – get this – images of the Ferris Fire with the aurora above flames:

Link to a reddit post by someone in Lewis, Colorado (north of Cortez), looking north. Click the little arrow on the right side of the pic to see the second image.

Link to a post by “Meteorologist Chris Nunley from Cortez, Colorado. This is Facebook, but I could see the post, and I’m not on FB, so hopefully you’ll be able to follow the link, even if you’re also not on FB.

Link to a post by “Meteorologist Joe Ruch CBS Colorado” of the Ferris Fire and northern lights. Also a FB post.

Did I see the northern lights? No, no, I did not. Once again, I slept right through the show. One of these days (err, nights …) … !

And your pony pic from Friday night:

Maiku kicking up dust (we don’t need any more smoke OR dust!) while smoke from the Ferris Fire (coming from the south/left) and Babylon Fire (across our whole western horizon) casts a golden glow over our ponies that isn’t nearly as lovely as simple golden sunset light.

Gratefully, while the Ferris Fire burns 20,560 acres to the southeast and the McCloud Fire and Horse Head Fire burn 113 and 530 acres, respectively, to the southwest (and that smoke is joined from the Snyder Mesa Fire (30,163 acres) to our north/northwest, drifting southish), Spring Creek Basin and lower Disappointment Valley were mostly smoke-free yesterday.

In the pic above, Tenaz and Skywalker, grazing with their band almost at the western boundary of the basin, are highlighted by that drifting smoke to the west. It’s fairly far away, but I haven’t seen Utah’s La Sal Mountains for at least a few days now as the smoke obscures any sight of them.

Now looking east/southeast, that’s the smoke from the Ferris Fire (the Doe Canyon, Far Draw and Ferris fires all have merged and are now being collectively called the Ferris Fire). But see how clear it is between here and there? Not great for folks and critters in that direction … but (again, gratefully), a huge relief for my beloved center-of-the-world Spring Creek Basin.

Huge thanks to sheriff’s deputies from both Dolores and San Miguel counties (Disappointment Valley spans both counties, and Disappointment Road runs from Colorado Highway 141 at the lower north end to the Dolores-Norwood Road at the upper southeast end) who have been diligent in keeping an eye on the fire’s approach: Branson, Todd, Derek, Jeremy and Nick. Also to my BLM folks, especially Ryan and Laura, for keeping an eye on the situation and updating me with information. Anton was on one of the fire crews pulled back Saturday for safety on the Doe Canyon Fire, and he might still be on a fire crew on the merged fire.

To all the firefighters out there, heartfelt thanks and prayers for your hard work and continued safety. The firefighters killed while fighting the Snyder Mesa Fire have been identified. There are really no words to describe the heartbreaking loss of those young lives.