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I drove up the "back way" out of Oracle to Mt Lemmon today and to Summerhaven to see how the mountain was looking. I found beauty and devastation. The old control road was open to the top and the rolling hills were a gorgeous green with grass. There was evidence of the older Bullock fire but the undergrowth is coming back with a vengence. The road above the Oracle mine has more character and I was glad I was in the Jeep Wrangler for this one. Lots of rock slide damage at certain drainages. On top Summerhaven is somewhat shocking to look at. The cafe and the realty cabin look fine and the hillsides are green- but the pines look like black sticks and the old hotel is still a blackened jumble. Saw several really burned up cars. The side roads are all closed except to residents- as it should be.
I took a short hike to an overlook - some parts are still green and flowers were everywhere. I had lunch with a birdseye view of the Galiluros and could see the telescope on Mt Graham. I took the old road back down to instead of the highway- I wanted every bit of beauty I could get. Most trails are closed- the Wilderness of Rocks area that I could see was toast.
I feel sad; but now hopeful---

that's a depressing pic RedRoxx44

http://hikearizona.com/dex2/album_page.php?pic_id=319

thanks for sharing

Oh my goodness! How horrible... so sad to see such a beautiful land in such a condition...

Thats a shame. However, I myself can't wait to hike up Mt. Lemmon one day! Maybe this Dec/Jan.

I'm sorry, but I just don't get too worked up over these things. I see it as nature at work. In the long run that is how we get things like this:

http://hikearizona.com/phoZOOM.php?ZIP=3740

Hang in there!

Good point Mike. We humans are way too impatient. Often we're not willing to wait a couple hundred years to give nature a chance.

Hey, does anyone know if they decided if that fire was natural or human caused? I remember there was a lot of lightning in the area at the time, but there was also talk of possible human involvement early on before any thorough investigation could be done. Any final outcome?

It was human caused. What I've heard is that thanks to satellite surveillance from big brother up above they got an overhead photo of 6 vehicles at the TH along with images of 2 older folks and 3 males in their 20's on the trail around the time of ignition. Help is needed in solving this case. As far as I'm concerned whoever started this blaze should be tied to a tree and.....

whereveriroam wrote:It was human caused. What I've heard is that thanks to satellite surveillance from big brother up above they got an overhead photo of 6 vehicles at the TH along with images of 2 older folks and 3 males in their 20's on the trail around the time of ignition.

Okay. While I hope that the responsible parties are brought to justice, does that "satellite surveillance" creep out anyone else?

mike t wrote:does that "satellite surveillance" creep out anyone else?

I use it all the time to get a top perspective on certain areas. The fact that they still need help solving the fire starting above shows that they really can't tell much from the pictures they get with regular monitoring.

Hey RedRoxx44, we did the same trip you did about a week after you. We were in our passenger car...so, needless to say, we did not go back down the same way we came up!

Yes, Satellite spying is very good these days.

IN fact, I am using a satellite to spy on you right now.

To prove it, I will tell you that you are sitting directly in front of your computer at this very second.

amazing, huh???

-Pete

makes you kind of nervous doesn't it

In response to pfredricks' reply:


Nice try. But my house is wrapped in lead...and tin foil... in a bunker... under a dairy farm.

yes, I know (all)
love,
big brother