Thanks. I was thinking such a thread was needed.
We are visiting our daughter in Denver. I’ve never seen such smoke around Denver as I did when we landed on Saturday. You couldn’t even see the foothills to the west. On Sunday, we went to Rocky Mountain National Park and the air was pretty good on our hike to Cub Lake at 8,700 feet. Yesterday, we went to Colorado Springs for the balloon festival and the air was hazy, but not real bad there. We Later hiked at Rampart Reservoir (9,200 feet) and again the high mountain air was clear. But, when we got back to Denver about 5:00 PM, it was real BAD again. I can see the foothills and mountains west of Westminster, CO right now through mild haze.
We are headed up to Coeur d’Alene tomorrow and it currently is among the worst areas with winds flowing west from Montana.
Our son has a ticket to climb Half Dome with friends on Sunday and it sounds bad there with three fires burning just west of Yosemite.
This is one of the worst fire seasons ever. It sounds like the authorities are going to let a lot of the blazes burn themselves out with the coming cooler temps and rains, so clear air may be a couple months away yet.
We are in the foothills on the western side of the mountains. It is probably 90 miles from the nearest large fire, but the moon was red last night and the sun is orange. This morning the car was covered with ash. And of course is smells like fire.
Someone should really be held accountable for this forest mismanagement, but the problem is now endemic among the leadership. So axing one head in the forest service will just get you the next in line who thinks the same way. My long retired uncle was once one of the head guys in the forest service. He started out fighting wild fires while studying forest management in college. Later in his career it seemed he was always on the front lines as well. I haven't talked about this latest debacle with him but he has been the primary influence on my point of view.