bpko wrote:It's a damn shame this fire has to be in this area. There is a lot of cultural history that is present in Hewlett Gulch area. Anyone ever hear of the Gordon Creek Woman? It's a 12,000 year old burial just west (I believe) of Hewlett Gulch, which is one of the oldest burials known in the United States. All the woman's remains have since been excavated, but the surrounding region itself is still of great archaeological interest and research. I hope the fire doesn't affect the integrity of this site.
Have they announced the cause of the fire? Last I checked the causes were still unknown.
Fort Collins and the foothills to the west are shrouded in a haze. No matter where you go, it smells like you're standing right next to a campfire.
Honestly, the fire might help with the archaeological site. Didn't the fire in Mesa Verde ultimately uncover a whole bunch of stuff that the NPS wasn't aware of? I mean, I guess these things could go either way, but I'll hope that maybe the fire will help the researchers discover more artifacts in that area!
As for the cause, 9news is now saying that it was a camp stove from a camper. That's too bad:
http://www.9news.com/news/article/26858 ... rting-fire" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
EDITED TO ADD: No sooner do I post this reply than I decide to read the rest of the thread and notice that others have already beat me to both of these points. I guess I'm just here for redundancy.
SilverLynx wrote:
It's not ecologically bad, no. But I camped at Pingree Park for 4 weeks (the site of the Hourglass Fire of 1994) and walking around in a bunch of burned deadfall is a very unpleasant hazard. Fires do make for some lovely wildflowers, however.
I do remember that traveling through some of the burn areas near Pingree was quite challenging due to the deadfall. Based on your post, I'm assuming that you were up there with the CSU class? If so, did you guys do any kind of study on a more recent fire that would have happened there in about August of 2008? I hiked up to Emmaline Lake around that time, and I know a fire was burning in the vicinity as we came out of the wilderness (we saw smoke over a ridge, and wildland fire crews were passing us on the hike out). Never did hear how that fire turned out, and haven't been back to the area since, but figured you might know!