I love this place. It’s a largely artificial lake at about 9000 feet elevation. Even in the summer, it’s nice and cool up here. It’s crystal clear, cold water.
But then 2020 came, and like everything else that year that sucked, this fire happened. As it were, I had a trip scheduled to Steamboat Springs, but could not go that way due to the fire closing the highway. For probably a month or more, we had almost no traffic up here, except the locals.
At the height of the fire, when it was closest to my house, it was maybe 5 miles away. At one point we were evacuated, but chose to stay anyway. For several days, the sky was angry and red. There was a day in town when the streetlights were on at 3pm and you needed your headlights to see.
I took the video below today. It was a little sad for me, to be honest. At the end of the video is a selfie, taken before the blue beard, and about 300 feet from this spot.
The Night Driver 