Boondocking Devastation

I've seen a few small areas with similar damage, but those were steep hillsides where tornadoes can't form. The lesson is that Ma Nature does whatever, whenever and don't get in the way!

BarabooBob wrote:
That looks like straight line winds. All of the trees fell in the same direction and none of them are twisted off. I help with cleanup of many disasters here in Wisconsin, both straight line and tornadoes. That is some of the most dangerous chainsaw work possible. You have to study every tree that you cut and don't get in a hurry.

What wind speed does it take to do this type of destruction?
There were other places (1/2 km away) where tress were down in all different directions (the destroyed trailer area).

That looks like straight line winds. All of the trees fell in the same direction and none of them are twisted off. I help with cleanup of many disasters here in Wisconsin, both straight line and tornadoes. That is some of the most dangerous chainsaw work possible. You have to study every tree that you cut and don't get in a hurry.

WinMinnie02 wrote:
Wow that is some boondocking experience. Much better than overpriced on top of each other private campgrounds.

Yes, it is one of our favorite CG's. Just a 2.5 hour drive and it sits at 9,200'. The CG has flush toilets and a shower facility {that we never have used}. As it sits in a National Forrest our Geezer cards get us in for $15 a night. Most of the sites are at least a quarter of an acre. The only down side is at that elevation it has a short season, usually from Mid May through September or the first snow fall which ever comes first.

:B

Wow that is some boondocking experience. Much better than overpriced on top of each other private campgrounds.

That's getting pretty close to not being able to tell about it later.

We weren't boondocking but were at 9,200' in the Rainbow CG at Big Lake in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona a few years ago. It was mid june and the Monsoon had arrived early and with a vengeance. As we sat in our Class C enjoying the thunderstorm {heavy winds, rain and hail} a blinding flash of lightning followed instantaneously by the loudest crack of thunder we had ever heard roared through the campground.

The next day we saw the destruction firsthand. Just 100 yards from our campsite a 60'+ pine tree had taken a direct hit:



As you can see an enormous section of that pine came down exactly 90 degrees across the {fortunately} unoccupied pull through site and chunks of that tree the size of railroad ties were blown 30 yards in every direction. Had anyone been in that site undoubtedly they would have been directly in the impact zone. :S

Here is another view:



:E

BB_TX wrote:
Tornado or freak high winds?

From the 500 foot wide swath through the trees I would say tornado. Plus there were some trees 300-400 feet from their broken stumps.

Another very popular boondocking area 1/8 KM from where we were camped, totally wiped out.





This trailer got picked up and drop on it's rear end.





I think the Rangers or RCMP got the other campers out of there before the tornado. There were about 3 dozen campers in there earlier that day.

If I’m not mistaken, YouTuber Foresty Forest showed this wind damage on his latest video.