Workamping at Echo Basin Ranch -1

 June 29, 2012 we were just around the corner, E of Mancos, CO and almost to our workamping home for the next nine weeks and what do we find?  Smoke!  We thought we had left the fires behind on the Front Range but this one had been going on for a week and was far from out.










We decided to stay since we learned the Pre-Evac order had been lifted and the smoke was blowing away from the camp.  This is our view out the back window of the RV - looking NE into the San Juan mountains across a beautiful pasture on the EB Ranch.  Those bare peaks are fourteeners!








 We watched the fire on the mountain to our South grow slowly until the conditions were just right for the fire fighters to do a massive controlled burn.  It started in the late afternoon and was most impressive that night as they shot flaming rockets into the right spot and 'backfired' up the mountain, burning up all the "fuel" for the wild fire.  Wow!  This took place on the first few days of July.



This is what it looked like a couple of days later - and will for a while.  Thankfully, the summer rains arrived on July 4 and the undergrowth turned green and the threat of fire in our immediate area was over.  You can see one of the reasons they threw over 600 firefighters into this - those towers had to be saved as they were all the communications for the 4 Corners area: Cell/TV/Radio/Emergency.  The other reason was if the fire had jumped the highway it could have burned a fouth of Colorado as there is nothing but forests to our North: the San Juan National Forest, and others.