Lime Gulch Wildfire (Colorado)

Last weekend, we did some camping in Colorado.  We happened to be camping on Thursday night at a state park about 15 miles from a new wildfire that just started the night before.  They called it the Lime Gulch fire (I'm not sure how they come up with these names, but I think it's based on the area where they start).  Take a look -

The first image, above, is one I took from our campsite.  That's our Jeep and the back end of our RV in the foreground of the image.  The smoke looked bad, and the state park went on voluntary notice of potential evacuation, but that was just to be on the safe side.  The fire was quite a ways away from us, and the wind was blowing it in the opposite direction from us, so as long as the wind held the way it was (and it did), we were ok.

This image is one I took Thursday night around 10 pm or so.  The quality isn't good (it's blurry), but you can get the idea of what a wildfire is like at night.  If you enlarge the image (click on it), you'll see some orange streaks in the upper left corner of the image.  Those are also the wildfire - probably tree tops burning.

 

I took the above image Friday morning.  At the time, I thought perhaps the fire was already under control.....but I was wrong.  It was just sort of waking up and hadn't gotten itself wound up with the heat of the day and wind yet.

This last image was one I took on Sunday.  We spent the weekend in Denver, and stopped at this state park again on our way back home.  If you look just to the left of the mountain in the distance, you'll see a little plume of smoke.  That's what's left of this wildfire.  By this time, it was about 90% contained, and well under control.  No homes or people, pets, etc., were hurt or lost as a result of this fire.  I think the area where it burned was not developed or occupied at all.

 

 

Whew!