Mountains on Fire

All day long I was seeing billowing smoke in the far distance after starting my journey from Cloudcroft, New Mexico. Nothing to worry about, I thought to myself. Little did I know I'd be camping less than 10 miles from the fire that night.

Closed roads just north of Mountainair made going on impossible. I grabbed the last camping site still open.

The Manzano Mountains fire had already been raging for three days before I arrived. But westerly winds blew the smoke away from the town and my campsite.

Next morning I chatted with the locals at the Ancient Cities Cafe where over lots of coffee the talk centered around the fire which had already burned more than 16,000 acres. The cause: human. The cost: an estimated 5.7 million dollars. The effort: 625 people working to control the blaze.