After we came back from the Sports Park and celebrating the fact that Black Belt testing was over, we looked out our front door and saw smoke coming from over the hill. This picture was taken just as the High Park Fire was starting, but it quickly grew to over 75,000 acres and destroyed hundreds of homes and forced thousands of people to evacuate. The extreme heat, very low himidity and gusty winds all prohibited the firefighters from getting any sort of handle on the out-of-control flames. The air quality across the entire state was affected from this fire, and it was one of the first of many fires to burn arcross Colorado during the month of June. There are also fires burning in Boulder, and a huge one in Colorado Springs that has levelled hundreds of homes and whole subdivisions. There was even a fire that burned in Estes Park for 24 hours, right outside of the YMCA of the Rockies. The High Park Fire is now officially the largest and worst wildfire in Colorado history and it was initially said that it would probably burn until fall. Due to some recent rains and higher humidity, it is now hopefully going to be contained by the end of the first week in July. The air quality will be affected for a much longer period of time, however. And we know people who have lost everything. We are very fortunate to not have suffered any devastation from this fire.
On a walk around the block, look what we came across! Mike of course had to get too close to this rattler, trying to get a good picture. I have seen lots of bull snakes and other non-poisonous snakes around our neighborhood, but I was a little unsettled to think that we have rattlesnakes this close to home (right at the end of our street near the roundabout!) And the scary thing was that once this snake slithered off the sidewalk back into the grass, you couldn't see him at all, he was completely camoflauged!
