We drove up to the Caribou Hills burn this afternoon. It's been about two weeks after the fire started. The State pulled most of the fire-fighters off the last night, though we saw several groups of yellow-shirted fire-fighters still mopping up small smoldering areas.
About 55,000 acres burned--most of it state land but the estimate is that about 80 recreational cabins were destroyed. All we saw from the road were the cabins (and the word is a misnomer as some of those were two- or three-storey house with fantastic views) that survived. It was apparent that many survived only because some one was there and fighting the fire themselves--everything burned up on all sides and just the house left standing. There's a large parking area where the road ends and I am sure many of the cabins that were destroyed are off-road and accessable only by four-wheelers in the summer or snow-machines in the winter.
There were some plants already shooting up through the blackened soil in some areas that burned off just a week ago. Other areas fire moved through so quickly that it only burned the lower grasses and scorched the lower leaves of the shrubs, leaving the tops still green. Also--what was interesting to see was the random, spotty nature of wild fire. It didn't just march in a straight line across the landscape, but would follow drainages and hilltops, leaving areas of undisturbed greenery.
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