Oak Creek Canyon

 East of Delta, Utah is Oak City, Utah (check out the link for an interesting tidbit about the country's atomic history), and east of it is a beautiful canyon called Oak Creek Canyon. I never paid much attention to it until it burned in a huge wildfire a couple years back. When we had some extra time one Saturday, we decided to go drive up the canyon and see what was there. We were impressed.

Even though it was obvious that the fire had burned really hot, taking out whole hillsides of trees, the vegetation was coming back well. The oak trees were already several feet tall, and colorful maples dotted some of the areas. A big section of ponderosa pines had been protected from the fire. Those that did burn may produce the next crop of ponderosa pines, as they require fire in order for their seeds to regenerate.

We eventually turned around and came back to the lower campground. We found an old picnic structure.

Behind it was an impressive amphitheater. I let the kids play in the leaves and use their imagination while I wandered around taking photos.

I'm not sure who uses this amphitheater, but I'd sure like to be there for some performance.

The leaves were spectacular.

I was a bit surprised to see signs announcing bears in the area. I guess the acorns help provide enough food for them.

The campground host has a cabin. It looks like a great place to spend the summer. We will definitely be adding this canyon to our summer camping list.

The canyon is located in the Fishlake National Forest. Activities include camping;  fishing (for introduced trout); rock climbing; hiking Fool Creek Peak, the highest peak in the Canyon Range; wood-gathering; hiking Devil's Den memorial trail; and checking out the fire rehabilitation.  When you drive the road, there are places where they tell you not to stop for the next mile because of flood damage, and when you see how they had to bulldoze through all the debris to reopen the road, you don't slow down too much, even on a sunny day!

It's so fun discovering places that aren't too far from home and yet are so interesting.

Hampton Fire Aftermath-Early August 2014

 In early August we went out one afternoon to see what Hampton Creek looked like after a recent wildfire. The clouds had settled over the tops of the mountains.

The road down into the canyon showed us our first burned trees.


We stopped a few times to take a closer look. The yucca had burned, but should be back soon. One of the most interesting features was a rock-lined ditch I had never noticed before.

This ditch continued a long way, across springs, through the trees. The story I heard is that a one-armed World War I veteran lined the ditch to get more water down the canyon, so it wouldn't sink into the alluvium.

That sure would have been a lot of work!

The other thing that really surprised me was all the springs that were close to the road that I had never noticed before due to the thick vegetation. Now they are much easier to find, and vegetation was already growing again.

We saw a variety of insects, including this charismatic fly. I found the feet particularly interesting.

The springbrook looked orange because apparently that's what color moss turns when it burns.

Up at the old garnet mill site we found the structures still intact.

We also took some time to look at the old equipment, which I had never noticed before.

The trailhead sign had burned and some indication of channeling was evident.

We kept looking for signs of life, and Desert Girl was pleased to find this fresh deer track.

It was an interesting afternoon checking out the burned area. We're going to have to do it again soon because last week a storm cell stalled over the watershed and dumped rain, causing a flash flood that washed away parts of the road. The landscape has changed once again.

Hampton Fire

In the last post I shared our hike up Mount Moriah. Today we're going to stay with the North Snake Range, where a small lightning-strike caused fire has been blown by strong, gusty winds into a large wildfire.

At first you might say, "Oh no, the poor forest is burning!"

What I'm saying, as an ecologist, is "Hurray, that forest really needs to burn! The aspens might have a chance of surviving if the encroaching conifers are burned back, and the bighorn sheep habitat should be vastly improved."

What my husband, the rancher, says, "Good, those canyons are overgrown with too many trees and fewer trees means more water will be coming out of the canyons."

What is certain is that over one hundred years of fire suppression has caused for some very dense understory. If you've ever tried to hike off-trail in the Snake Range, you know what I mean!

The fire was under a 100 acres for the first few days just in the Hampton watershed. Strong winds blew it over into Little Horse and Horse Canyons. The first night the fire got big, the ridgetop glowed at night.

Last night we took a drive out to see the fire better. (We saw quite a few other people out doing the same thing.)

The fire had been updated in size to 4500 acres, and we wanted to see it from a different angle. We drove up to the road towards Horse Canyon and found smoke emerging from several canyons, but it wasn't coming from the mouth of any of the canyons.

A helicopter flew over. More and more aircraft are involved with fires now. It can make it easier to see what's going on and to respond in some cases, but aircraft really add to the cost of a fire.

As the light faded, we saw headlights approaching from both Horse and Smith canyons. The Gila hotshots had been up there. While the fire was small, a wildfire monitoring crew from Colorado was stationed there. Now there are over 100 personnel on the fire since it covers much more ground. The fire is really cleaning a lot of forest!

This fire will likely be going on for some time, as no rain is in the forecast, and many of the flames are high up on steep hillsides where it's not safe for firefighters to go (plus those areas should burn anyway). The Forest Service supervisor is very happy with the fire, as it is burning in an area that they've wanted to have burn for a long time. The fire doesn't threaten any lives or structures. (It must be rare to have nearly a whole mountain range with no structures on it!)

For the most up-to-date information, check out the Ely Fire Facebook page.

Post-fire Regrowth

We joined some friends for an outing up Lexington Canyon, where the Black Fire burned last year. The weather wasn't exactly promising when we started out, but we decided to go anyway. I'm glad we did, because the contrast of the newly sprouting plants with the charred trees and white snow was stunning.

Desert Girl was happy to hike because her friend Rose was along.

The diversity of species was interesting. American vetch (Vicia americana) dominated much of the ground cover where we were, but we also saw lots of other plants, like lupine, this yellow violet (below), Packera multilobata, Indian paintbrush (Castilleja chromosa), Descurainia sp., heartleaf twistflower (Streptanthus cordatus), phlox,  and much more.

The American vetch was like a carpet in places, with its purple blooms livening up the forest floor.

I find burned areas fascinating. You can see how the fire progressed and ponder why one area burned and another different. The resulting patterns of burned areas have a strange appeal.

Despite the high intensity of the fire in this area, many of the plants are regrowing, including these chokecherries.

A gate is supposed to go in here now, but for now a sign warns people to be careful of falling snags and other hazards. A flood that came after the fire washed out this road.

Even in areas that had both burned and flooded, plants grew.

Gradually the clouds floated away, allowing the sun to warm the charbroiled land.

Desert Girl was fascinated with all the flowers.

Hopefully more people will get to experience the rejuvenation of the land after a forest fire. It is truly amazing.

A Trip to Post-Fire Lexington Canyon

A little while ago we decided to take a trip up Lexington Canyon in the South Snake Range near Great Basin National Park to see what had happened since the Black Fire. The fire started July 1 and burned about 5,000 acres, with some of it getting a little exciting with big wind gusts that had firefighters calling for retardant drops and more than 100 firefighters. Other times the fire was quiet, burning slowly in high elevation forests. In late August we had quite a monsoonal pattern, with thunderstorms building and actually delivering rain nearly every day. Some of those rains were really heavy, including one over the fire that caused a flood washing many miles, out to the highway, with a wide debris path.

We stopped to take a look at the muddy wash bottom and were surprised just how wide and deep the water and debris had been. 

We sent Desert Boy to the bottom of the wash for scale (and to run out some of his energy!)

 He looks so small! Good thing this flood was in a place where no one lives.

 We drove along the road, not really seeing much sign of the fire until we got to these burned cottonwoods.

 That turned out to be the spot of a washed out culvert. It wasn't nearly large enough for all that water and debris washing through the channel.

The road was impassable at the culvert, but beyond it was in good shape (better than the Snake Creek road).

 One of the things I was really interested in was what plants were coming back in the fire. These beautiful purple asters made an appearance.

 A little farther down the road we found the old cabin. This is where the Woodwards lived for a short time back in the late 1800s. They tried their hand at farming and helping with Quate's sawmill up Big Wash, but eventually left the area. I don't believe anyone has lived their since then, as it is quite remote, and over the years the creek eventually dried up.

The firefighters had saved the cabin by cutting most of the shrubs around it. This makes it quite accessible now.

 It has no roof, but the old windows frame the view.

 Nearby is the dry creek, with the dead cottonwoods sticking up like burnt matchsticks.

  New cottonwoods are already making an appearance, and by next spring, this area will look a lot different.

 We continued up the road, seeing how the fire had mainly stayed down in the lowest part of the canyon.

 Farther up, we found willows growing.

 We also found skunkbush (above) and rose.

 As we neared the turnoff for Lexington Arch, we saw that the fire had climbed higher up the mountains.

The road was still in good condition, and we continued up to the spring, where we found a splash of green. We camped here in 2012, but it looked so different on this visit!

 The insects loved a blooming dandelion!

 The old trough was twisted even before the fire.

 Here's a view of the spring and tank from the other side of the dry creek bed. The rock formations in the background really stand out now.

 Mullein blooming.

Stinging nettles.

 The spring still leaves puddles in the road!

 Yarrow.

 It looked a little more burned as we continued past the spring.

 The fire was hot enough it even burned the rocks!

 The road was in good shape till we reached where a side canyon met the main canyon. Then the washouts got more severe, and before long, the road had turned into the stream bed.

 It was a strange feeling walking among all the dead trees--but it was easy walking.

 I rather liked this saguaro-looking stump.

 The power of the flood was evident in many places.

The kids weren't so excited about hiking, but we really wanted to get a view of the Arch, and we had already come this far.

 We kept looking for interesting sights. We saw that the flood had transformed the landscape in so many ways. In the photo above, the flood washed away enough of the soil that the tree roots were exposed.

 We took a little snack break and my husband took a couple photos so I could be in one!

 I had been on this road to Lexington Arch several times, but I had never been very aware of the tiny creek bed next to it, mainly because it was almost always dry. Now the creek bed is wider than the road.

 We walked in the creek bed for quite a ways, observing the tangle of roots in the banks.

 A cool burned tree.

 Rock lodged in the tree trunk.

 Desert Boy's sad, "are we there yet" expression. Then he spotted something.

 The trailhead sign! The sign still stands, although it burned and you can't read anything.

 We all took a look at it. We couldn't see the trail right at that point, but it's in good shape further up the hill.

 We found the road and hiked back on it (wasps were attracted to Desert Girl's sparkly shirt and were stinging her, so we took her shirt off and that solved the problem. We didn't have extra clothes and it was quite warm, so she was fine).

 Whenever I see islands of green in a burnt forest, I wonder what influenced the fire so it didn't burn that spot.

 I loved seeing this Indian paintbrush so far up the canyon!

 And then we saw it, Lexington Arch! Looking at this photo really makes me want to hike up there and see how it looks up close.

 It will probably be quite awhile (if ever) that the old trailhead is reestablished, but it's not that far from the end of the mostly decent road to the old trailhead.

To see what Lexington Arch used to look like, here's a post from 2008, and another from 2012.