Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire An emotional hike to a tree- another chapter of the Granite Mountain Hotshots

My wife and I made a relatively under the radar hike this morning to a tree. Not just any tree, the universally accepted oldest and biggest alligator juniper tree known in the US. Most professionals put it in the 1,500-2,000-year old range. This is only a small part of the hike.

This specific tree was hiked to and saved by the Granite Mountain Hotshots 12 days before 19 of the crew of 20 died in the Yarnell Hill Fire. They built fire lines around the tree and backburned from it, saving it while everything else it was burned. You can see in the photos the fire stopped at the tree, even though 9 years of regrowth has occurred.

The Granite Mountain Hotshots were going to come back to the tree and place a plaque by it, detailing the efforts they made to save the tree but never could as they died 12 days later, tragically.

This tree is giant and photos do not do it justice. An emotional morning worthy of sharing....

Heroes.

Sombering place.

Being from east side of the USA, Only thing i know about it I’d from the movie.

Nothing about reviewing whether it was accurate or not. Just all i know about it.


Thanks for sharing.

Googled it. Thanks for posting.

I have not made it to this one yet but have been on fires in the burn scars of the South Canyon fire outside of Glenwood Springs on two different occasions. I will make it to where the Granite Mountain IHC perished as well. Rest in peace my Bros.

May these brave men rest in peace.

Such tragic loss.

I'm sure the movie didn't do them justice, but it got the word out there.

That's it.

The fatality site is 50+ miles south and 12 days later on a different fire. This is not the fatality site. I'm trying to load photos up in the mountains as fast as I can ...

Thanks for posting, Greg!

Y'all both look good! Tell A I said hello.

All firefighters are members of a brotherhood. As a retired firefighter, all I can say is rest easy brothers.

Impressive tree and a fitting memorial monument.
That's I hike I would like to make someday.

We good my man. Living life as hard as we can. She says hello....

Yeah. It's worth it. It's an easy casual 3-miler but as I told Ali, it's literally a living and breathing memorial. I suspect the next fire that threatens it will have every hotshot crew around fighting to save it....

No words...Just heartfelt respect for all those who fought a forest fire and paid with everything they had.

Thanks, GW


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The only way to live, Amigo!