Earlier this week the Angeles Crest Highway reopened through the Angeles National Forest. This road has been closed since the Station Fire back in August which was the largest wildfire in the recorded history of Los Angeles County. This terrible fire consumed more than 160,000 acres and resulted in the death of two firefighters.
Having taken pictures of the Station Fire I thought I’d take a drive up to see what could be seen. The change in scenery was astonishing compared to the area I had enjoyed hiking in earlier in the year. It’s going to be a painfully long time before the area recovers and trails can be made safe again. I really regret not hiking many of these trails before this. In my photographic quest this morning, I did not venture off of any of the wide turnouts that are dotted along the highway. I was in no way interested hindering any of the recovery. Unfortunately there were other people that I saw along the road walking off of the turnouts and into the fragile scorched soil around.
This is quite a sight to behold considering that back in April the hillsides looked something like this:
Instead, there is the strange alien world that now exists there.
This miniature rockslide chute illustrates what lies ahead for this area, since the vegetation is gone and nothing is left to hold back the soil. I hope our rains our nice and gentle this year.
There is hope. Fire is of course a natural part of the cycle of life here. As you can see some of the bushes have already sprouted forth new growth as the roots still live.
I sincerely hope that those responsible for this fire are brought to justice. With up to an inch of rain in the near term weather forecast, the Angeles Crest Highway may close again just a few days after opening. The entire road seemed to have been repaved, with construction crews working all over on drainage projects and repairing other damage to the road, guardrails and signs. Thanks to the construction crew for working so hard to reopen this road.
I started the day at Devil’s Gate Dam, and will be posting pictures from that location as the next blog update.
