Yeah, I'm keeping my eye on the Calf Canyon / Hermit's Peak fire on the east side of the Sangre de Cristo mountains in the Pecos wilderness area. It's about 25 miles from our house, as the crow flies. Of course, I'm not a crow. So if I wanted to get there I would have to drive south through Glorietta Pass on I-25, and then north to Las Vegas. Las Vegas is a town of about 13,000 people, and it may need to be evacuated in coming days.

I have a friend who has a cabin in the Pecos. He sent me this video from the front lines. His cabin is further in the fire area, if it still exists.

DC8 dropping fire retardant

I’ve been through the fires thing.

Scary stuff.

NOAA's view

Our place is sort of in the middle of these three fires.,,,

I've been thinking of you during all of this. The good news is that you're near SF, and I'm sure they will move heaven and earth to protect the city. The bad news is that you're not in Santa Fe. The good news is there are plenty of access roads, unlike Las Vegas which is really sitting helpless in the path right now.

Let's hope for a change in the weather/wind patterns. Last summer we were about 20 miles from the closest evacuation zone (in "get ready" mode, not "go") and that totally freaked me out.

For some perspective, the size of the Calf Canyon / Hermits Peak fire at present ...


People often don't think of New Mexico as a big state.



I seem to have helped my fried Per to some momentary fame. An Irish outlet contacted me about using the video, and I referred them to him. Apparently he agreed, because I'm seeing his video on websites all over the world ... with the expletives crudely deleted.

We're in Santa Fe now. The past week has seen low temperatures -- 30s at night and high 50s to low 60s by day. Plus, we got two small passing rains that wetted things a bit in the evening.

The Cerro Pelado fire in the Jemez mountains west of Los Alamos is now just about fully contained. Bandelier National Monument reopened today. That's located in Frijoles Valley, which is one valley over from the fire's reach before it was contained.

The big Calf Canyon and Hermits Peak fire has stopped growing. It's about half contained, but the active part will likely burn back on itself due to prevailing winds.

Calf Canyon & Hermits Peak Fire

Weather is getting hotter now, in the mid 80s. Still cool at night, but that's normal for northern New Mexico.

Taos Canyon now in "ready" mode. Due north is the Taos Pueblo and the city of Taos proper, still in planning mode but likely to go to ready overnight unless the winds die down. Angel Fire also in ready mode. Yuck.

Picuris Pueblo/Penasco now downgraded to out of the danger zone.

Nice link to the National Interagency Fire Center

Holy !!!!
Have not kept up with that fire.
A friend recently bought a uh... shack north of Taos Pueblo. I think
he is FBI (Full blooded Indian). He was valuable sailing crew when he lived here.
Hope he does not lose his new place.
WSW winds for Taos today. Strong West winds tomorrow.

Raining here. Hope the rain continues.