These are some photos that Shelley took during the Castle Rock fire in August 07.  We live in town and these are all pictures from town, we did not go looking for any flame shots so you will just see some smoke.  The fire burned a huge number of acres of our lovely forest.  It threatened the ski mountain as well.  But due the great efforts by the fire crews not a single structure was burned and while the backside of the ski mountain was burned all the runs where untouched. 

For most of the fire the National Guard was monitoring who came into the canyon we live in and we had to go through check points just to get home.  During the worst of the fire we had the police show up at our door and we as well as hundreds of others were evacuated from our homes.  Luckily my parents live in the area and we where able to crash there.

We were even able to get back on the trails later that fall for some really sweet riding to see what was and was not burned.  It was amazing how it just toasted so much and then there are islands of unburned in the middle of such damage. 

In the end I think this will have a positive effect on the trails here, there was allot of underbrush that burned out and the sage brush is gone in many places this will lead to more wildflowers next season.  So if you ever thought of visiting here next summer could be the best time ever.