Walk near Moose Mountain

Last year there was a big fire up near Moose Mountain. Kate and I could see the smoke from Denali Elementary School on the south side of Fairbanks and it was quite impressive. Luckily, no structures were lost.

Sunday, after a nice little drive where the Subaru did not get stuck in mud or snow we went for a little walk in part of the burn area. We didn’t stay out long since there was thunder and it started to rain. I dislike being on hills in the wilderness next to power lines during thunderstorms. Anyway, here are a bunch of pictures from the walk.

Here is part of the fire line that the firefighters cut to stop this thing from advancing. I’m not sure how long it is, but just from what I could see it was no simple feat. I’m more impressed with them now than I already was.

The groundcover was soft and mushy. Everywhere there were trees there was burnt ground. I expected more of a charred landscape.

There were a lot of charred pine and alder cones on the mossy ground. Cool juxtaposition.

The landscape wasn’t bad to look at. I really love this part of the interior. It’s ridiculously remote for being only about twenty miles from town. Incredibly green rolling hills in the summer. Endless. Just ignore the mosquitoes.

Looking at Murphy Dome through burnt trees. You can kind of make out the long-range radar dome at the top.

There was a lot of moose and bear scat. This one had obviously gone through the fire and now had fungi. Neat!