up from the ashes

The Hayman Fire started on June 8, 2002 and was not fully contained until July 18 of the same year. In the 40 days that the fire raged on, we lost 140,000 acres of beautiful forest along one of my favorite motorcycle rides. Now 22 years later this is what it looks like. I am grateful that the aspen trees have started to come back, but there is still a lot of bare land (see extra).
It was a perfect day for a 3 hour ride!