Catalina North Slope

[Jim]

Has anyone been up on the north slope of the Catalina Mountains post fire?

https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/photos/AZCNF/2 ... 3-CDT.jpeg

I'm interested in what conditions are like now, especially in the moderate and high intensity burn areas on the north slope, specifically in the elevations over 6,000' feet or so, where the ponderosa and mixed conifer begin to dominate.

If you go, and yes I do realize this isn't the season most would, post burn photosets are appreciated and posting a link in this thread is, too.

Thanks

[ShatteredArm]

@Jim_H
I just posted a few photos from Oracle Ridge. Burn is pretty severe, hard to tell from far away, but the upper part of CDO looked really bad.

[Jim]

@ShatteredArm
Thanks for the photos. I forgot I had hiked that hike, down the ridge, over to Catalina Camp, and then up Red Ridge Trail. It actually looks unchanged.

Sadly, even before the Bighorn Fire, many photos were 5 to 8 years old. I guess it is not a popular area.

[ Canada del Oro Trail #4 ]
[ Samaniego Ridge Trail #7 ]
[ Samaniego Peak ]
[ Shovel Springs Loop ]
[ Red Ridge and Canada del Oro Loop ]
[ Oracle Ridge - Red Ridge Loop ]

[ShatteredArm]

@Jim_H
I had done Red Ridge, Catalina Camp, and Canada del Oro within the year or two before the Bighorn Fire, and from what I could see from Oracle Ridge, all these areas have been significantly damaged from the fire. Some areas at the very bottom of the drainage, and possibly Catalina Camp itself, looked somewhat intact. The scrub that tends to cover the slopes seems like it got the worst of it. There were some areas on the upper part of Red Ridge and Oracle Ridge that had already been damaged by previous fires, but overall, I thought the change was very apparent.

[Jim]

I no longer remember the name of the fire but I seem to recall back in about 2003 there was a substantial fire that affected a lot of that area. When I did that loop hike crossing through Catalina camp I recall both the slopes above being burned off. It just sort of burned it again.

The map shows a lot of high-intensity fire, so I'm sure there's a lot of damage but just from the photos you posted it looks about as I remember in 2014.

It willl be months before I get up there, but I really want to see what Samaniengo Ridge, Canada del Oro and the area north of Mt Lemmon proper look like.

[Jim]

[ photoset ]

[big_load]

[ photoset ]

It looks not horrible with some snow on it.

[Jim]

@big_load
It was hard to judge what had changed in a lot of the older trees, except near the ski area and running up the road to the summit, where there was a lot of recent death. Some might have been from the fire, some might just be from two bad drought years. The big exception are the young conifers that have regenerated after the 2003 fire.