Station Fire Photos

Caltrans opened Highway 2 a couple of weeks ago into the Angeles National Forest.  I headed up on Saturday, hoping to get a few photos in before the storm that hit the L.A. area on Monday caused the whole area to slide or be covered in snow.

As I drove up, there were lots of people doing the same thing: touring the disaster area.  In between, road construction crews were moving up and down the road, desperately shoring up what they could before the wet season began.  The forest itself is closed.

I didn’t get to shoot as many pictures as I wanted due to the forest closure, mostly just pulling the car off to the side and shooting out the windows.  According to the Forest Service employees who stopped while I was framing a macro shot, everything off pavement was considered Forest Service land and rangers were out ticketing.  I always thought the highway shoulder was also part of the state highway property, but what do I know?

So I didn’t linger and moseyed along, and the devastation was shocking.  Stripped of vegetation, the naked geology of the land was clearly visible.  Even more than that, the size of the burn area is astounding.  It’s one thing to see it on maps, something else to drive through mile after mile of it.

Anyway, I think the pictures speak for themselves:

In La Canada Flintridge, showing how close the fire got to housing tracts

Looking down into Switzer’s Picnic Area, trailhead for the Bear Canyon Hike

Denuded area near Switzers

Hopscotch nature of the fire, skipping or only partially burning trees

The sign says it all

Burned flanks of Strawberry Peak

A little bit of green survives on this otherwise scorched bush

Along Highway 2, striped of all vegetation

Trailhead sign

Burned area near Chilao