Birds and Nature

I was shocked when I first saw this DC10 plane flying near the Royal Gorge Wildfire--I couldn't believe they were allowing a passenger jet to get so close. Then it circled the fire and later dropped fire retardant on it. I heard later that they now use these passenger jets that have been modified to hold gigantic tanks for the fire retardant. As I photographed the fire this plane flew directly overhead. SeEtta

Photos of the wildfire west of Canon City when it was 'blowing up'--very angry fire. SeEtta

A serious wildfire broke out around 1 pm this afternoon on the south side of the Royal Gorge across from the Royal Gorge Bridge. It continued working all afternoon and evening with one section moving northeast towards Canon City. I took these photos tonight of the hillside on the west side of the hogbacks. Though there are clearly hundreds of trees burning all over that hillside (it is adjacent to H50 paralleling the hogbacks and where H50 turns west and to the south of where goes up 8 mile hill) it must have been a much worse conflagration earlier as I saw a slurry bomber dump fire retardant on this hill about an 2 hours before I took these photos. In the photo on the left you can see a tree torching. Lights on the bottom are residences, etc in Canon City on the east side of the hogbacks (the dark hill between the city lights and the burning hillside). SeEtta