Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Colorado Cameron Peak Fire

Officially the biggest fire in Colorado recorded history - ever.

Glen Haven is in the crosshairs, as is Masonville. Plenty of property and homes have been destroyed already.

The fire has been burning for 2 months but low relative humidity and massive winds from a cold front pushed the fire **16 miles** in less than 18 hours.

It absolutely EXPLODED today.

4 close friends have had to evacuate and another has already lost everything.

Here is an image from the edge of my neighborhood.

Are you going to BBQ, i always do when we get a hurricane.

Did ANTIFA start it?

Winds were incredible today. Hope some moisture comes in quick.
I'm surprised the Mullen didn't run as well.
Hope they all stay safe and the fire fighters as well.
Half the Snowies have burned, just hoping it's beneficial to the habitat and is a mosiac burn.

I guess one good thing is no lives lost.

My wife’s family has a house in Estes Park. She is freaking out thinking she needs to fly up there and get some keepsake stuff out. I don’t think it’s necessary but a wind shift out of the North could prove me wrong very quickly.

If you are not familiar with InciWeb or the fact that fires now have their own official Facebook pages, you can start here.

This morning's InciWeb report on the Cameron Peak fire includes this information: "Structure triage, assessments have been completed in the Falls River corridor, Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Park, Estes Park Valley, Glen Haven and Storm Mountain areas and surrounding communities." From going through this a bunch of times in Wyoming, that is code for something that is not imminent but possible.

Also on there is a fresh announcement that the Forest Service just closed the entire Canyon Lakes Ranger District lands, which include lands east of Estes Park. Sometimes, state and local governments tack on their own restrictions in the area.

We are impacted by the Mullen Creek fire in southern Wyoming. It started 10+ miles from our cabin, and we were not impacted by the initial forest closure. My wife and I were at the cabin and decided to get a trailer and UTV out of there, and I grabbed a sentimental American flag. We still left a bunch of stuff at the cabin. A few days later there was a big run by the fire, and the forest expanded the closure and the county initiated road closures that prevented any further access to the cabin. I wish I had gone back for more stuff while I had the chance.

Nearly 165,000 acres now.

I’m keeping an eye on that Elk Mtn fire. Spoke with our ranch foreman this morning, it had him a bit concerned. LOTS of smoke.

Then I got an email from old retired Colo game officer friend who said this was the one for us to watch.

I just saw that map, East Troublesome Fire.....it has tons of fuel if the winds stay out of the west....ugly, hope all hang tough...

That’s the one. Thanks ”Troublesome!

Just south of Hay Park in the troublesome. I got most of my elk in that area. It was only a 45 minute hump from our camp at Big tree or Lost Gulch. It is only a matter of time before all that dead stuff burns. Sucks that it is right in the middle of hunting season.....fortunately, there are quite a few fire breaks between there and your ranch...

Yeah. They’ve been logging on the ranch past two years getting rid of beetle kilt trees. Up river and supply creek too! And above the red top

Everything from Walden to WInter Park was pretty much dead last time I looked. I stopped caring after they screwed up the Diamond Park blowdown before the turn of the century. Surprised it's taken this long, but here it comes.

I spent a lot of time up there years ago. The beetle kill was already pretty bad when I left in ‘06. It’s since been described as “catastrophic “.

Bad deal all around. Maybe it’ll help wipe out the beetles?

The US department of agriculture, has done an amazing job with our forests.

I was just in the proposed evacuation area during muzzleloader season. Pretty much the whole area that my group hunts in is in that area. I was just texting my hunting group and giving them the heads up on the fire about 5 minutes ago. While I'm really looking forward to not having the deadfall to deal with, it's not good for the people living there. Good luck with the ranch Bob!

Thanks Tim! Dunno whats gonna happen.

I was just curious if they are even allowing outfitters and hunters to run wood stoves in camp out there this year? I pulled up my old hunting grounds awhile back on Google Earth. I had a hard time navigating by memory and I do not suck with map and compass. The deadfall and standing dead is unbelievable.

Don't count on it. While some or all of the ground deadfall may be gone, you could wind up like we did 2 years ago with tens of thousands of acres of standing burned, dead trees, some of which have very thin bases eaten by the ground fires. They start falling down in stiff winds, creating more deadfall, and making walking around the woods or driving down forest roads during windy conditions dangerous

That's not what I wanted to hear Cheyenne.. I've been dreaming of the days that I can hunt that area again without feeling like a squirrel climbing up and down and over the dead trees that have fallen over. We already deal with the beetle kill and having to watch out for windstorm. It's a little eerie in the woods when you are hearing trees falling..