Fires along Superstition Ridgeline

[AZLumberjack]

Last night, around 7:30, I noticed a red glow coming from the Superstition Mountain Ridgeline. There were two fires burning. The first was a small fire just below the 5057 summit and the other appeared to be above the Three Sisters rock formation, above the Wave Cave. I called 9-1-1 to notify the fire dept but they were already aware of the fires.

This morning, the fires were not burning but there's still smoke coming from areas that were not burning last night. As of 07:30, as I'm writing this, there are no aircraft in the area of the fires. Don't know if the Forest Service is just hoping that there's not enough fuel up there to send a crew up to fight the fires.

[AZLumberjack]

Yesterday after lunch, I tried to get closer to the fire zone but Hwy 88 is blocked at the entrance to LDSP and manned by the Highway Patrol, so I drove up to the Ranger's office and explained that I only wanted to take some photos for the local newspapers and magazines, but that didn't work either.

I heard that fires were now burning in Garden Valley and Second Water Trail.... now that's a long way from the slopes of Superstition Mountain and two days ago when I was at the First Water Trailhead, there wasn't any smoke coming from that area. Yesterday on "Live Flight Tracker", I was watching two "Super Scoopers" making several trips from Roosevelt Lake to the fires burning between the Massacre Grounds and the Massacre Grounds Trailhead.

I don't want to second guess the Forest Service but you don't suppose that they're doing some "Controlled Burns" in some of those areas???? Just thinking out loud.

[chumley]

you don't suppose that they're doing some "Controlled Burns" in some of those areas????

Fire managers regularly draw a management perimeter on a map during an active fire -- a line where they don't want to allow the fire to get by. From there they absolutely start fires within the perimeter as part of their strategy.

In this case, I wouldn't be surprised if their perimeter is the other two burn areas and highway 88, with only the homes backing up to the forest near Apache Junction as a place where an actual fire line needs to be built or defended (plus structures at Tortilla Flat).

[FOTG]

@AZLumberjack

I heard that fires were now burning in Garden Valley and Second Water Trail

I know I have been doing some emotion based responding lately, but this just truly devastates me. I really feel like I am losing a part of my life out there with these fires. I am Legitimately saddened by this on so many levels and its hard to articulate. The Supes were where I learned about the outdoors, hiking and backpacking etc. Its where I met Jim and had some of the most memorable moments of my outdoor life with the dogs and him. Now Jim is ill, Cup is gone, Blanco is aging fast and the last chunk of the Supes is burning up, just absolutely crushes me, tbh...

[LindaAnn]

@friendofThundergod Not to make light of the damage to the Supes, because I know how much you care about them, but I just can’t help thinking how much easier a few of those manzanita clogged hikes we did would have been with the vegetation burned away. “Make like a bear.”

[FOTG]

@LindaAnn
I have also thought about the possibility of new ruins showing up too. ;)

Honestly, its just impacting me on a bit of a personal level for a variety of reasons, sigh...kind of like watching a part of my life slip away to a degree...

[chumley]

@friendofThundergod
Think positive. You're still the youngest person who contributes to this website. And nobody can ever take that away from you!

[Jim]

@chumley
Don't we have a member who is in their 20s?

[wildwesthikes]

I still think the spotter could have named it something more fun than "Superstition".

I would have gone with "Massive Weenie Roast in The Desert"
or how about "Cactus Wrens? We don't need no stinking Cactus Wrens!"

Kind of the Elon Musk approach to naming things.

[The_Eagle]

@chumley
Bigger Font please.... I SAID BIGGER FONT PLEASE

[chumley]

@The_Eagle Does CHARTREUSE help?

I still think the spotter could have named it something more fun

Perhaps the "Who Cares" fire?

[Alston_Neal]

Don't we have a member who is in their 20s?

Not that they'll admit, but on the plus side we have a number of arrested development tweeners.

[wildwesthikes]

Perhaps the "Who Cares" fire?

Apparently TNF does. I watched the video briefing this morning where they went into detail about why they were dropping the pink stuff into places like Boulder Canyon. Hint: it wasn't to protect structures. I was as surprised as you would be to hear them say that.

[nonot]

The new map shows that they have completed a ~1 mile containment line from crosscut trailhead to the foot of the cliffs of Superstition Mountain closest to that point.

It looks to me like their strategy is now for containment rather than monitoring- my inference from what information is available is that they will be using second water trail and the ridgeline west of Boulder canyon on the north and east flanks, likely with the ridgeline being only slurry drops due to inaccessibility, while second water trail is mostly boots on the ground.

They also appear to be using most of First Water road as a fireline, but have already had some escape down into first water canyon area and other spots. This section will likely be the most difficult to contain since it is in very rough terrain but I believe they want to stop it before it takes down the power lines that run closer to the apache trail.

[big_load]

I really feel like I am losing a part of my life out there with these fires.

So do I. I was looking forward to spending the rest of my hiking days wandering around in there on a regular basis.

[herdbull]

@big_load we live 10 mins from 1st water road. To say this sucks is an understatement. We're retired and out there 4-5 times a week. The asshat that sat back and did nothing as this burned across the ridgeline should be fired. 1 day of dropping retardant on the obvious route it was going to take off the mountain would have stopped it. Now we have to waste a lot of $$$$, man hours and put firefighters in harms way to try and contain it. Uhhggg.

This won't be contained and will run all the way to Canyon Lake and Tortilla Flats and then to the east. No way to get machinery in there and fight it. Hand tools are no match for it without some help from mother nature. Then again the mentality seems to be, no structures=no sense in fighting it.

[Jim]

Any more recent photos from the ground for this fire? Inciweb has no more since the 26th.

[nonot]

New map is up this morning. Entire northern flank is listed as under containment, it looks like the entirety of first water road and second water trail, to Boulder canyon was worked heavily on yesterday and is entirely under control. That's a whole lot of distance and they mopped up the areas where it had escaped. Hell of a job the firefighters on the ground pulled off for one day. Those guys are tougher than I am for getting it done under these heat conditions. Looks like after this they will resume mostly ground monitoring other than slurry drops on the ridgeline.

[AZLumberjack]

Any more recent photos from the ground for this fire? Inciweb has no more since the 26th.

Roads are closed. I tried a couple of times to get back close to the fires, but no-go.

[nonot]

New map today shows that the entirety of the Superstition Ridgeline is now listed as contained, with only the east side of the fire being uncontrolled. This eastern flank hasn't really shown any progress in the last few days, and the monsoon rains that hit last night seem to have also helped. It's a little early to stick a fork in it, but I don't think it is going to spread much further.

And FYI, they list the Apache trail as reopened as of 6AM this morning. (It is still closed near Fish Creek)

[Trishness]

@friendofThundergod

I totally get it & I don't post much on the forums anymore but the Superstition fire really left me heartbroken for the beautiful wilderness of rock, saguaros and cholla. I've been hiking in the Supes for almost 20 years, so when the Woodbury fire came through in 2019 burning 125K acres I was pretty crushed, then Sawtooth in early summer 2020 but I thought "well, at least we have the western Supes" and now they're fried also. Yeah..well. I'm happy I was able to hike those hundreds of miles and see it when I could.