I rode out this evening hoping for some of the clearing of the skies forecasted by the weather guessers but it was not to be.
60 miles of riding later, none of the usual spots gave views of either distant Pikes Peak or the nearby Front Range Mountains, even nearby Mount Evans was invisible behind a gray hazy sky.
As the sun set, I stopped briefly along Crowfoot Parkway on the way back to the town of Parker from Castle Rock. The sun was a glowing red ball low in the sky and my photos failed to capture its redness but should give you an idea of our hazy smoke-filled skies.
I can only imagine how much worse conditions are for the folks who live near the current fires burning in several western states. Hopefully weather conditions will favor the firefighting efforts that are ongoing.
11 comments:
Salt Lake has experienced similar poor air quality over the last week or so. In fact, there were a few afternoons when the Wasatch Mountains nearly weren't visible. Nasty, nasty stuff. Here's to hoping that it soon improves for eveyone affected.
Ugh! Grim conditions. Does it smell snokey?
Ry, here's hoping, the fact you almost couldn't see the Wasatch mountains from SLC is really smoky as they're much closer than the front range mtns are from Denver.
RichardM, no, no smoky smell....that's only when the fires are in Colorado I guess.
The forest fires seem to be raging everywhere throughout the west. Terrible!
But in all it's ugliness and fierceness it still creates beauty in form of an interesting sunset light.
SonjaM, a terrible beauty but yes.
On my ride home on one of the worst evenings last week I could smell the smoke a bit, and we've had all sorts of air quality warnings for "sensitive" groups, warnings that are usually reserved for winter, when our lovely, lovely inversion sets in and the smog starts to build.
That especially smoky ride home reminded me of the summer of '88, when Yellowstone was ablaze. At that same time, at least one of our local canyons was on fire, and for a few days we received a light rain of half-burnt scrub oak leaves in our city neighborhood. I was still a kid at that time, and I tell ya, with all of the Yellowstone coverage on the news and the rain of ash in our neighborhood, things seemed pretty apocalyptic.
This summer's been strange: For as dry and hot as it's been on the west coast and in the pacific northwest, Salt Lake's July was the coolest since the late '90s, and Utah's wildfire season has been very mild. Weird stuff.
Ry, yeah I can imagine with a light ash rain falling from the skies and the TV blaring with images of an enormous fire, one could start thinking that the apocalypse is near!
We're having the warmest summer I can remember in a long time. The rumor now is that the Winter is going to be pretty harsh as well. We shall see.
Indeed. If "harsh" means tons of snow in our mountains, I welcome it--especially after last winter, unseasonably dry and warm as it was. Keeping the fingers crossed...
Nature is simply amazing and endlessly mysterious. Saw some of these fires on the news--they were breath-taking and overwhelming at the same time. Wishing the area and its residents the best.
Father-in-law is in south Denver and has been reporting the worsening skies to us. Hope for everyone's sake that things turn soon!
Sorry for the late reply.
Ry, the more snow we get anywhere, the better....
Sojourner, thanks for your comments.
Coop, skies are clearing here in Colorado.
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