Highway 1 Is Open
All roads around the Basin Complex fire opened today, so I decided to go check out the carnage for myself. The fire isn't out yet, but it's contained enough inland that the roads re-opened.
You can still see the smoke billowing up from inland when viewing from the coast at Monterey, with the smoke blowing more inland, but as you approach Big Sur, you see that the smoke is also blowing towards the ocean too.
In the first photo below, you can see the approach to Big Sur from Highway 1 - the smoke is still lingering on the hilltops and there is still a tanker 'copter on standby just in case.
It's quite amazing how far down the coast you can drive and still see fire damage - I turned around at Big Creek bridge, and I'd seen fire destruction (mainly in the distance) for a long time before I make the 180 degree turn.
Most of the parks in the Big Sur area re-opened in some state or other - Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park opened its waterfall trail - all the other trails were still closed due to fire damage. The next photo shows the hillside just south of the park, scorched by the fire.
Many of the scorched hillsides viewable from Highway 1 were very steep - I'd be immensely surprised if this winter doesn't record some sort of record for landslides in that area of Highway 1.
The following photo is a view looking north of the hills, whose tops were still smothered in smoke. Whilst I only smelt smoke a couple of times during the trip, there was ash in the air for most of the time - it was almost like light snow.
Finally, while at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, I did take the one open trail - to check out the waterfall. The smoke in the upper atmosphere caused the sun to appear orange and actually gave the waterfall a nice orange glow - a small silver lining in an otherwise catastrophic incident.
You can still see the smoke billowing up from inland when viewing from the coast at Monterey, with the smoke blowing more inland, but as you approach Big Sur, you see that the smoke is also blowing towards the ocean too.
In the first photo below, you can see the approach to Big Sur from Highway 1 - the smoke is still lingering on the hilltops and there is still a tanker 'copter on standby just in case.
It's quite amazing how far down the coast you can drive and still see fire damage - I turned around at Big Creek bridge, and I'd seen fire destruction (mainly in the distance) for a long time before I make the 180 degree turn.
Most of the parks in the Big Sur area re-opened in some state or other - Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park opened its waterfall trail - all the other trails were still closed due to fire damage. The next photo shows the hillside just south of the park, scorched by the fire.
Many of the scorched hillsides viewable from Highway 1 were very steep - I'd be immensely surprised if this winter doesn't record some sort of record for landslides in that area of Highway 1.
The following photo is a view looking north of the hills, whose tops were still smothered in smoke. Whilst I only smelt smoke a couple of times during the trip, there was ash in the air for most of the time - it was almost like light snow.
Finally, while at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, I did take the one open trail - to check out the waterfall. The smoke in the upper atmosphere caused the sun to appear orange and actually gave the waterfall a nice orange glow - a small silver lining in an otherwise catastrophic incident.
posted by Tim H at 10:55 PM
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