The Sacred Path

This shot was from my yard about 7 PM and it is of the sun, not the moon. I used spot metering rather than matrix. Matrix metering looks at the overall image in the viewfinder and then “averages” the exposure for the entire image. In this case the area surrounding the sun was just a featureless gray.

On to the Little Goose Fire. This morning the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) website reports the fire is now at 4827 acres 45% contained (up from 4807 acres and 40% yesterday). Progress might seem slow to those of us with no fire fighting experience, but we have to remember they are working with limited resources and manpower due to the other fires in the west.

Speaking of the west, the fire in Yellowstone has jumped the eastern park boundary and evacuations of some of the lodges and campgrounds are underway according to the Sheridan Media website (more on the Little Goose fire there as well). I just talked with my cousin who owns the Elephant Head Lodge, 10 miles from the east entrance to Yellowstone, and the Forest Service says at the moment they appear to be OK, but as we all know, that can change quickly. This fire may still be burning when the first snows fall. For those of you who haven’t been over there in some time, the Bark Beetles have been working overtime east of the Park, and if the fire gets into those areas where 50 to 70% – or more – of the trees are dead…. well, I can’t even imagine.

The eastern slope had cleared quite a bit by about 8:00 pm. This is a shot of the still smoldering area south of Red Grade road. It reminds me somewhat of the Scottish Moors although it’s not mist, it’s smoke. The good news is that the next few days are supposed to be calm with temperatures in the high 80’s and low 90’s here in Sheridan, which should equate to even milder temperatures on top of the Big Horns, and make it somewhat easier on the firefighters.

With all the smoke in the air from the Little Goose Canyon fire, the sunset on Monday evening was spectacular, and seemed as if it was going to last forever. These were snapped with my point-and-shoot digital. I would have loved to have had my large format film camera with me, but then again, where I would actually like to set up in on private property, and I need to get permission before doing so.