YNP - Fire on the Mountain

The Antelope Fire near Mount Washburn in Yellowstone National Park. This was mid-day and I could see flames from a mile away!

Almost every summer growing up in Western SD, we'd get days of haze. Usually it was late summer, early fall. Word would get around of the fires in the western mountains causing the haze. The big Yellowstone fire in 1987 brought many days of hazy and smoke tinged air to our farm. So it was interesting for me to actually see a similar fire in YNP. I read about it online after I got back and apparently this Antelope fire is/was the biggest fire all year in the park. Below are some shots of it and the effects of the smoke taken over a couple days while I explored near the fire area. Click on an image for a larger file to view and thanks for stopping by.

On the first day near Mount Washburn, the fire didn't seem to be that strong and the smoke stayed low in the valley bottoms. Lamar valley, famous for wildlife, was in a pretty thick haze that day.

White smoke columns was the most activity I could see that first day.

A day and a half later, the nature of the fire changed fairly dramatically. As I drove the same road as before, the first thing I noticed was a darker column of smoke and then I could see flames (first photo) every couple minutes. I think what was happening was when the fire found a new tree it would flame up like a roman candle burning off the dry needles.

The smoke was not settling like the day before so I went back to the Lamar Valley to look for wildlife. What I saw when looking back was pretty amazing. The smoke column blocked the sun and made for an eerie orange/red look across a large swath of the valley.

Later that evening the low sun colored the smoke as it rose above the valley.

At dusk, I went back up Mount Washburn as I wanted to see if I could see/photograph the glow of the fire as night approached. Below are my best efforts.

This sunset was actually taken the first night in the park near Yellowstone Lake near the edge of an old burn in the park. I liked how the silhouetted dead and live trees stood out against the fiery sunset.