Comments on: Wallow Fire Still Growing

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 01:03:48 +0000

Actually, I was looking at the slopes of the mountains much further West, and to the West closer to the California – Arizona border. It may not be sage, but it is definitely purple.

You probably can’t see it anymore after they started to pull water out of the Colorado and irrigate huge farms along I-8, which I saw on my last trip in 1991. There’s nothing like humidity to “enrich” the heat around Yuma.

Nothing much changed today, except the fire got bigger.

The grass and shrubs down South are also burning, so the ranchers are in a world of hurt.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 22:32:29 +0000

Actually most of what you’ll see from I-10 at the Arizona-New Mexico border is creosote and brittlebrush and ocotillo with some agave and joshua trees in the higher elevations and mesquites in washes and other wetter places, not purple sage, which you’ll see mostly in the high deserts of Utah. The Sonoran Desert is deceptively lush looking compared to most deserts, because all of those other than the brittlebrush and mesquites keep their foliage year-round (and oh yeah, there’s cacti, duh). But believe me, it’s still very much a desert… whereas once you get above the Mogollon Rim, things get truly lush with real trees and grass and stuff.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 14:17:00 +0000

The main suspected cause is an unattended campfire.

Even on I-10, it you travel West in the Spring you can see the new growth, but especially the purple sage that blankets the mountains.

I prefer a horse for the country, but your own feet are what you are left with when the trails drop out, or there’s a fire – because horses really don’t like fires and do crazy things around them.

The ranches have to be in trouble, as the grasslands are surely wiped out by one or another of the fires in Arizona, and the drought across the Southern section of the country is going to make hay next to impossible to get.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 05:25:30 +0000

Most folks think Arizona and New Mexico are all desert. But this area is at a high elevation and gets more rain than most of the surrounding areas during the summer monsoons and gets a fair amount of snow in the winter, and is thus heavily forested. Add in the usual issues with USFS firefighting letting too much duff build up, and drought, and you’re talking about a tinderbox.

BTW, beautiful area to ride a dual-sport touring motorcycle in… well, when it’s not burning, anyhow. Sigh, I miss my KLR…

— Badtux the Former Arizona Penguin