OF FIRE AND SMOKE REDUX

The white puffy pyrocumulus cloud from the Alum fire stretched high above the road. Just over the closest ridge, at the base of the cloud, my visiting friend Craig and I see a tell-tale orange signaling that the hot fire itself is nearby gorging itself on the forest.  With the scent of fire in our noses, we slowly drive by Mud Volcano’s cordoned off parking lot, now empty of tourists’ vehicles. Now only NPS vehicles, some marked Fire, are parked here.

We briefly stop so I can snap a photo of the orange cloud above the gray starkness of the Mud Volcano. A park vehicle heads our way and we move back into traffic.  We speculate on how close the fire really is to this popular and developed thermal area.

The closing of the parking lot could mean nothing more than the Park Wildfire Management Team is choosing to be cautious. Better to have tourists NOT walking all around the boardwalk if evacuation becomes prudent. Additionally, if the fire comes further down the mountain, the parking lot is a perfect staging area should the Park Service decide to save the structures here – the toilets, the boardwalks around the thermal area, and the railings to keep people from stepping down onto the bacterial thermophiles, the ‘thin crust’ around its thermal features.

Yesterday we breakfasted at Gibbon Falls on our way down to Old Faithful where we spent the better part of the day hiking around the geyser basin.  The weather was perfect – the sky was clear and blue. I even wore my sun shirt and we both wore hats in order to keep from getting sunburned. We left Old Faithful and drove around to Lake Yellowstone, stopping at Bridge Bay to book a fishing trip. We passed Mud Volcano on our way north to Canyon Junction before turning our way to Mammoth. Mud Volcano’s parking lot and boardwalks were full. We noted a small plume of smoke to the west of Mud Volcano but its fire had to be very small and could easily wear itself out.

One day can make a lot of difference in Yellowstone. Today is Sunday and we are on our way to Bridge Bay for our guided fishing trip on Yellowstone Lake. Again we pass Mud Volcano, but it is empty of tourists this day.  Bridge Bay is just a few miles south of Mud Volcano but we are not worried about the fire. The smoke and the fire itself will be moving to the east, away from our planned destination. The smell of smoke reminds me to say a tiny prayer for the creatures in the fire’s path.

Mother Nature is taken seriously here in Yellowstone and fire is just one of the Mother’s ways of cleaning the overgrowth and debris from her forests. As long as the fire does not harm persons or facilities, the fire will be left to cleanse the forest and reseed in its aftermath. Fire in Yellowstone is a common occurrence during the dry, hot summer months. Unless fire threatens vital services, visitors or roads, it is honored as just one more natural occurrence and accommodated, just like my Arizona friends accommodate Arizona’s summer monsoons and accompanying flooding. Sometimes the monsoon is a bit annoying but we all recognize its worth. And up here in Yellowstone, fire is given its due.

When we get to Bridge Bay, we ask the Ranger about the emptied parking lot. She affirms that they believe the fire will cross the road quite close to Mud Volcano by 8pm and they want people safe. Right after our passing, they closed Grand Loop Road from Fishing Bridge north to Canyon in order to be ready for the fire’s crossing. She says at the moment, they believe the fire will not interrupt the activity at the Lake area but cautions us we will have to take the long way around, taking the south loop around Old Faithful, in order to return to Mammoth that night.

As our boat leaves the marina and its sheltered bay, we spot two other plumes, one larger than the other, on the south side of Lake Yellowstone.  The largest of these, the Alder Fire, has consumed a couple thousand acres but it is in a remote area and will be left alone for the time being.  The smaller fire, Passage, may have been smoldering for some time, but the high winds and very dry weather has caused it to flare up. We will be fishing for trout in the Yellowstone’s deep waters with fire plumes to the south and north as our backdrop. It will be just like any other day on the Lake – except for the fires.

On the way back to the marina after successfully catching four Lake Trout for dinner, we start our long drive around the southern circle past Old Faithful. Yellowstone is very, very large. Near the Old Faithful complex, the sky is blue and the air is fresh, giving no clues to the fires to the east threatening the Lake complex.  It is a long way around to Mammoth, where a bit of haze from the fires in Idaho and near Ennis Montana still lingers in the valley.

 

This night is Craig’s last in the Park. Tomorrow he flies out of Bozeman, 1.5 hours away. We have to leave the Park early in the morning so I can get back to work by noon.  On the way out of Mammoth the next morning, we see the slight haze hovering over Gardiner Montana. The earlier Emigrant Fire is out; surely this too is from the Idaho and Ennis fires.

 

I am back in Livingston, an hour north of the Park, in time for the day’s winds to pick up.  On my way down Highway 89, I spot an entirely new fire, one that will be named the Tom Minor Paradise Complex fire by the end of the day. Many of my associates in Accounting here at Xanterra in Yellowstone have homes along Hwy 89 north of Yellowstone. Fire is a fact here; they go about their day, leaving their desks only occasionally to step outside to see how big the smoke plumes are getting. By the end of the day, a long low streak of fire cloud, witness to Tom Minor’s hunger, can be seen from my dorm’s common room.

 

It is business as usual the next morning – except that I wake up with a terrible sinus headache, no doubt the result of being outside in areas with fire smoke over the last few days. My asthmas is letting me know I need to be gentle with myself, stay inside as much as possible for the day. I only go outside to check on the progress of Tom Minor, the fire now closest to Mammoth and tiny Gardiner. My coworkers talk about the possibility the fire will overtake Jardine, a small, mostly ghost town high above Gardiner to the east. The afternoon winds again whip Tom Minor’s appetite and the low orange cloud is once again seen from my dorm common room.

 

Yellowstone and its neighboring communities have much experience with fire. They trust that their fire departments, many of them volunteer, will do whatever is necessary to protect the public and the homes and structures in the area. Fire is well-known here, an old and necessary friend.

 

I am in no danger as I write this. I have merely been inconvenienced when fire is eating its way across roads I wish to take. There have been no evacuations – as yet – and the Park is still open. We are 100% occupied tonight – as we have been since the beginning of summer way back in May. The tourists, many of whom have planned to visit for several months or years, will have an even better story to tell and more dramatic photos to show their friends of their trip to Wonderland.

 

In the Summer of 1988, when over 1/3^rd of its forest was on fire, Yellowstone National Park remained open except for one horrible day in which the size of the fires in the Park nearly doubled.  I have written about this Summer of Fire in my previous post OF FIRE AND SMOKE. You might want to read or reread it at http://bit.ly/146wdZe .  Fire is a fact here – just like grizzlies or elk or bison. If it is not directly in your path, you accommodate to fire rather than the reverse. If it’s in your path, you prudently leave the area.

 

At the moment, accommodating the fire, for me, means perhaps wearing a mask when I go out here in Mammoth or Gardiner. I will still get out to hike or visit other places in the Park. I intend to hike Beaver Ponds Trail right out of Mammoth this weekend but, after assessing the smoke, perhaps I may choose to drive further away from the fires and hike in an area clear of smoke. There are so many of them.

 

I may take a drive up to Livingston for dinner next Saturday night, partially to view the progress of Tom Miner. Yes, I’ll be aware of the fires at all times. Yes, I’ll take precautions to keep my asthma from flaring from the smoke. But I suspect my reaction to fire will continue to be very little different than my reaction to hearing about a particularly active bear area. I will keep a respectful distance or will head the other direction – and with 2.2 million acres, there are always lots of other places to visit that I have yet to see.

 

When I bring my grandchildren here years from now, I’ll be able to point to the new trees that emerged from the ashes. I’ll talk to them about the role fire plays in restoring the balance in the forest. Hopefully they too will learn that fire is just another fact of the forested wilderness. They may even choose, as their grandmother did, to learn to live with fire, to respect its awesome power. Life from flame and ashes. Mother Nature’s way.