More fire woes

Record high temperatures and no rain in sight is not good news. The High Park Fire is still out of control and dropped from 60% containment to just 45%. Currently, 81,190 acres (328 km2) are scorched and it still keeps spreading. It is, however, only one of nine large wildfires currently burning in Colorado. Yesterday, 21 homes were burned within the city limits of Estes Park and in Waldo Canyon west of Colorado Springs, over 2000 acres are currently up in flames with the number going up quickly.

The Drought Monitor shows extreme drought (in red) for large parts of the state

 That fire caused the mandatory evacuation of the whole town of Manitou Springs (population 5,000) which is right next to the Garden of the Gods which we visited back in February. It is also the starting point of the 9 mile cog railway to the top of Pikes Peak and the railway is naturally closed for at least today. Highway 24 (which we used to get to Pikes Peak just a few weeks ago) westbound out of Colorado Springs is also closed at the moment.

Webcam picture from the top of Pikes Peak showing the end point of the cog railway

Quite a contrast from these pics two weeks ago