Colorado Unit 7 - Rawahs on Fire

A couple things i've noticed in my wanderings.

My experience in WY not far from there is even though it's beetle killed, a burn doesn't really take care of all the logs and such like you'd think. My experience in those areas, it get's even worse as now the trees that were dead and still standing are dead and burnt, and still standing. Also, it just makes more of a mess in the first couple years than one would think. Alot of Colorado needs to burn, but don't expect a burn, to clean those areas up. On the contrary, it get's even uglier.

Alot of antelope are going to die over waterholes this weekend. Rain has been non-exsitent.
 
I've backcountry skied in some of that country. I'm sure someone will kill some critters out of that birn in the coming years, but as folks have noted, I'm not too sure it'll be very fun to walk around in unless it's burning super hot.
 
I agree with Covey that this will burn some, but leave more weakened snags with lower protection. They will eventually come down. What it will do is open it up to new growth with the cover the elk will love....

Need to log these areas to get the dead trees out and open it faster.... also prevents the fires.
 
A photo from yesterday where it began near Chambers Lake

Pretty unreal how fast that fire grew on the 1st day. I imagine something like this could burn for weeks if the weather doesn't provide any relief. How they heck do the fire crews stop them or prioritize areas of protection?!
 
Not a drop of rain in the 10-day forecast from NoCo to Grand Junction, that I have seen. Just more hot and dry.

They're still calling this one 1500 acres. I'll be interested to see what it is tonight/tomorrow.
 
Inciweb predicts it to be contained by the 21st..I wonder how accurate that will be . I can only imagine firefighter resources are pretty low in the state right now with the 3 major fires
 
This fire tripled in size overnight. As with any govt entity, info typically lags to the public.
 

Smoke map for the state
 
Curious, do they know how these fires got started? Hikers with campfires, hot vehicle exhaust, or ...? I am guessing it was not a lightening strike with lack of rain...
 
Hard to say how it started but I'm guessing it was human caused. Rangers are super strict on the fire ban up there right now but they cant watch the dispersed campers as well as they can at the road side camp sites. This is a very high use area for backpacking and camping.... i hope S&R and LCSO are able to locate all these dispersed campers before they get trapped. The Rawahs are some super rugged country and getting anything in or out of there without a horse team can be a daunting task even for experienced backpackers. Choppers may be the only way to get people found and out of there fast enough...
 
Based on the location of the start of the fire, it probably was in the Blue Lake area - uphill and west of Chambers Lake. A very popular hiking/backcountry camping trail.

The trailhead was full of vehicles yesterday
 
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