HikeArizona.COM

Yesterday I was up on Mount Baldy and it seemed that this fire, Rock Creek Fire, was being controlled. I had seen the smoke late on Friday afternoon when driving to the trailhead. It was starting to plume up a little bit, but by Saturday when we looked at it from the top of the peak, it had died down a lot. This afternoon the smoke from the fire is blowing very thickly into Round Valley (Eagar/Springerville) and it stinks! There's a strong, gusty wind. I needed to do laundry and now I am sure my clean clothes smell like smoke. It reminds me a little bit of two years ago when you could not escape the smell of smoke for weeks on end, during the Wallow Fire.

Here is the agency info about the fire: http://311info.net/latestinfo/

I''m with you. We have had to close our windows for the last several nights because of the fires burning in our area. Every afternoon about 5-6pm. it blows in and obscures the mountains and makes it hard to breath.

They're reporting 40% containment now. We sure have been eating smoke, and so I have been worried about Baldy, but I guess all is well. http://311info.net/latestinfo/

It's a little smoky here for the first time since I lived in Alamo. It's from the Silver Fire. The smell is light and pleasant, sort of reminds me of the smell in the evening after a prescribed fire in the Ocala NF in Florida in 2002. Nice.

Rock Creek fire is pretty much out. I was just up by Big Lake a few minutes ago, and all the smoke on the other side of Baldy is gone. Nice and clear out tonight!