A sad update to this post.
The Cameron Peak Fire has exploded to over 202,000 acres, now the largest fire in recorded Colorado history. Just from Friday 10.16.20 to now, 10.18.20, the fire expanded an incredible 37,000 acres.
Damage assessment is still on-going, but so far over 100 homes have been lost that they know of. The difficulty has been in emergency services personnel being able to get in to burn areas to assess the extent of damage. Some areas it's still just too dangerous to get in.
The fire maps that I've seen have previously shown areas like Rustic, Archer's Resort, Poudre City, Kinikinik, and Spencer Heights as being spared, but more recent maps show that all of these areas are within the burn area. Notably excluded is the Chambers Lake CG, and the Tunnel Campground. I cannot imagine that the Aspen Glen, Big South, and Big Bend CGs have survived. I don't know about Kelly Flats or the Narrows CGs. Fire crews have been working very hard to save the 80 buildings on the CSU Mountain Campus between Stove Prairie and Rustic.
As of this writing, the Horsetooth Mountain Park west of Fort Collins and the surrounding residential areas are under mandatory evacuations, as well as all of Rist and Redstone Canyons, the Stove Prairie Road area, and all of the Buckhorn Canyon area including Pennock Pass, which were included in the explosive fire growth of the past 48 hours. Also under mandatory evacuations is the Masonville area, the Glen Haven and Drake area in the Big Thompson Canyon, and Storm Mountain. US 34 is closed from the Dam Store outside of Loveland all the way to MP 85 outside of Estes Park.
I went up to Golden Gate Canyon SP this weekend and on the way up went through Boulder. The smoke was so intense in Boulder along CO 119/the Diagonal Hwy, that visibility was near zero and winds were blowing fiercely from the NW. I could feel the winds buffeting my trailer and was only going about 35mph. It was the most incredible sight I've ever seen from the result of a fire that was miles away.
Two other fires are now burning, one north of Jamestown in Boulder County, and another just reported within the past few hours near Ward, forcing the mandatory evacuation of Ward.
This has been an absolutely horrible fire season for Colorado, and the fire crews have done a remarkable job in protecting what they were able to protect, in the Red Feather Lakes, Crystal Lakes, and Glacier View areas. Terrain and weather has been difficult for them to deal with in the areas where the fire has exploded. Please keep our valiant fire fighters in your thoughts and prayers, and pray for a change in the weather...we can use all the good thoughts and positive energy out there.
