[Kim Brown]

The first time I visited Swakane Canyon was the year Alan Bauer’s Best Desert Hikes book was published. This awesome guidebook was also responsible for pointing me to White Bluffs at Hanford Reach; both of these places have been on my list of friends I visited most years thereafter; absolutely gorgeous places! On July 7, 2002, 235 acres of rare sagebrush steppe burned at White Bluffs. On July 10, 2010, over 20,000 acres burned at Swakane. I’m not saying these fires are my fault or anything, but I’m beginning to develop a complex (I camped near Chewuch Falls 2 months before the Thirtymile Fire back in 2001, and was just coming off the Wildhorse trail during the storm that sparked the fire in Tumwater Canyon in 2000). For the record, my dad was a fireman and once rescued a little girl from a burning building. It really is hard to walk in an area that has burned if you knew it before it burned. Though I know it’ll come back, and it’s a necessary cycle of nature, and all that crap, I couldn’t help but mourn the loss of the colorful willows and birch lining the moist contours in the slopes, the silvery-green sagebrush and brilliant red ponderosas prettily perched on slopes above rocky outcroppings. Now the ponderosas are blackened stubs and charred, broken logs, and the willows are like black grates that capture dried up tumbleweeds. I wondered if the animals all got out OK, and how long it’ll take for them to come back. But despite all this, Swakane is still a beautiful place; the undulating hills, the birds, and the occasional music of soft wind sifting through stiffened ponderosa needles of those trees still clinging to life, though half-charred. JimK, Janet and Brighidoon walked this steep, long road to the obvious lunch spot; the Swakane Wall, a sort of Hadrian’s Wall that caps a ridge and overlooks the Columbia River. After lunch, I stayed behind to rest and wander the ridge while they continued on another mile or so before returning. They found a huge patch of shooting stars, I watched llizards scurry round the wall, and listened to the sound of a birds’ wings slicing through the air as it circled around my ridge time and again. It’s interesting to see what other folks enjoy on a trip; Jim and Janet were freaking about flowers, Gwen enjoyed flowers and views, while I grooved on road and slope contours. I didn’t take a single flower photo. Knowing what a crappy day it’d be with all that sun and not a cloud in the sky, I just brought my point & shoot. The weather was so crappy that there wasn’t even a tremendous storm sweeping over the Waterville Plateau to look at.

The Photographress

Lookin at the scene

Lichen

Now burned

3 Goons

Super Moons

the crowns of burning trees were still burning when the trees fell; you can see the newer, greener grass poking up where the burning crown burned the grass (how many times can you use the word "burn" in a sentence?)

View1

Curve2

Contour

[Gwen]

[HitTheTrail]

Interesting perspective though. And some nice photos of the area. The 1994 fire that almost completely took out the Entiat Valley turned our family farm into a lifeless chared moonscape. Now the fields where we used to mow hay are thriving young forests. Some trees are getting so high I got a call from the PUD the other day asking if they could cut some trees away from the main valley power lines. The wheel turns.

[Kim Brown]

Heeey, thanks, Brig! So interesting to think about stuff like this and solve mysteries! I was actually mystified last night when I looked at my photo and wondered that if the crown burned the grass, why was there a bit of extra-green grass above the root-wad? Brig's explanation solves it - the needles have been dropping over the llife of the trees creaing a circle around them before they fell. Hitthetrail, that's pretty amazing. I'm interested in forest ecology after a fire; I hope to get with a couple of USFS biologists to send me (hopefully join me) on a trip to Tiffany Mtn. this summer.

[treeswarper]

I'm curious as to how hot the Tripod Fire burned in the areas of down, jack strawed, lodgepole. Could it be revenge for bashing my shins up so badly one summer?

[Scrooge]

The Photographress

Now, that's a picture! Of ..... what did you say?

[Z]

[Spotly]

Funny..my wife and I spent some time talking about those same two trees a few weeks ago and wondering why the green grass. We were guessing that maybe the burned trees provided some nutrients that the grasses liked, which is why the green?

[Sadie's Driver]

[wildernessed]

I saw the 3 Goons pic on Fb and knew right where you were from the ridges.

[Kim Brown]

[Gwen]

Photo dump (I never know how to narrow the selection down)...

[Magellan]

Best dump I've looked at all day.

[Gwen]

[Hiker Mama]

Very cool! Love the photos of flowers AND contours.