Followup on Gila Camping, re the fires in 2011 and 2012. Hope Im not dragging this out too much but I just gotta let folks know. The Miller Fire in 2011 burned thru the entire valley, including around the Visitor Center and housing and everything upstream from the little village of Gila Hotsprings. Some of the area recovered immediately after the fire when the summer rains started and some was so scorched, like EE Canyon which burned for 3 days that the rains did a lot of erosion. Mostly depended on if the areas had been getting the occasional cool burn or not and EE Canyon unfortunately was not one of those ares - brought tears to our eyes when we rode in there after the forest reopened. The White Water/Baldy Fire in 2012 burned essentially all of the high country to the west and north of the Gila Center area and when we left (I retired June of 2013) most of the high country trails were still closed due to the hazards of standing dead and down trees and I would guess that a call to the Gila Center would be in order if you were planning to go that far into the Wilderness - its nearly 20 miles from Woodys to the edge of the 2012 burn. See the attached of EE Corral meadow on Little Creek and Johnson Canyon in McKenna park for how the country recovered immediately after the cool burn within the Miller Fire and the picture of EE Canyon for how the country looked after it burned for three days followed by flash flooding that came right afterwards. Except that everything you touch turns you black from the char, most of the burned country doesnt appear to have burned without close up viewing. Its still MIGHTY pretty so dont let the past fires deter you from riding there!!
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 04:10:19 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015