The Magnum Fire...

[Desert_Captain]

We've been out for nearly 3 weeks doing the Rockies in general and Yellowstone and Grand Teton in particular. Left Moran, northeast of Jackson, Wyoming yesterday and had and awesome run down the Snake River Canyon to Idaho Falls before heading south through Utah ending up in Provo at the Lakeside RV Park {very nice, beautiful and definitely worth a stop if you are passing though... but I digress}.

Left Provo this morning at 0730 {had 35+ mph winds right on the nose all the way... Arrrrg!} planning on getting off of I-15 to cut over to Hurricane {outside of Zion NP} and continue east through Fredonia and then up to Jacob Lake about 40 miles north of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. At nearly 9,000' it is a spectacular campground and one of our favorites.

We made it about 40 miles east of Hurricane when we first saw the enormous, humongous clouds of smoke rolling off of the mountain. The wind was 35+ out of the southwest and was not helping. We checked the internet on our phone and found that this huge fire {20K+ acres in the last two days} is trapping everyone at the North Rim as there is no way out and the entire mountain has been evacuated. They have closed 89A out of Fredonia as the evacuations continue.

I hung and immediate U turn, filled my 55 gallon tank {24' Class C} and scurried back to Hurricane taking 59 back out to I-15 south. We found nice RV park just off of I-15 in St George and are hunkered down here for the night. Have a reservation in Wickenburg for tomorrow {5 hours down the road} and then home Thursday {about 3.5 hours} to wrap up a 4,000+ mile trip the has been AWESOME!!!

I'll try and add some pics {they are amazing} when I get home {limited internet on the road}.

:C

[Dtank]

CavemanCharlie wrote:
Glad you decided to get the heck out of the way and not become another statistic.

Ask any private (airplane) pilot the most difficult maneuver (for some) to execute.

If he/she doesn't say a "180" - find someone else to fly with.

:W

.

[Dtank]

Lwiddis wrote:
Too early in the season for this size fire.

Tell that to the many folks who resided in Paradise, CA...:S

It's only "too early" if it's raining.....continuously!

.

[Desert_Captain]

Here is a shot from the Magnum fire we took on Wednesday morning. We were 40 miles east of Hurricane and it had burned well over 20K acres at that point and was only 2 percent contained.



As noted I fueled up and reversed course back to Hurricane ending up at a nice RV Park in St George {{Temple View RV Park just west of I-15}.

:E

[Desert_Captain]

CavemanCharlie wrote:
Glad you decided to get the heck out of the way and not become another statistic.

Yep, being "Film at eleven!" never had any appeal.

:B

[CavemanCharlie]

Glad you decided to get the heck out of the way and not become another statistic.

[PartyOf_Five]

North rim is shut down for the fire- we could see the think white smoke from Mather here on the south side at sunrise yesterday.

[Lwiddis]

Too early in the season for this size fire.

[DarkSkySeeker]

The pictures will be interesting to see.