After the rains the day before, I got up early and headed to the falls above Hessie.
Looking down the cascade of water. As usual, click on the photos for a larger version
Falls
11
Reconstitution
After experiencing the driest second quarter (April, May, June) in recorded history, a dozen wildfires across the state, a wildflower-less landscape, and record breaking temperatures and dry wind, the rains have finally come. I’ve received nearly 3 inches of precipitation over the past 3 days. A little more is expected today. Now, of course, the weather service has issued a flash flood watch.
The graph below shows the flow in Boulder Creek east of the dam. Note that the water levels were about 1/4 of the historic average before the recent storms which are shown by the spike at the end of the graph.
Boulder Creek Streamflow, click for larger.
April, May, June are statistically our wettest months.
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Regarding the media coverage of forest fires, they commonly cite that the fires are worse due to the mountain pine beetle killing the trees. In one local case, they stated the fire was burning in a tinder-dry beetle killed forest, when I knew for a fact there were very few beetle killed trees in that area. They will stop at no lengths to sensationalize a story.
The problem is, as we learned with the Bush administration, if you repeat something enough times, it becomes true in people’s minds. This leads people to thinking that the pine beetles have to be dealt with in some way. For example a large part of the forest near where I live, where people hike, camp, and ride bikes is going to be “patch cut”. Patch cutting is removing all of the trees in large areas, similar to clear-cutting.
Remove the trees, and yes, the pine beetle “problem” goes away for obvious reasons.
Pine beetles have always been a part of the forests here. They have been documented as being around for at least a hundred years and are probably a native species. Their job is to keep the forests from getting overgrown, just like natural fires. Based on my own observations, they don’t kill all of the trees. Thirty to forty percent continue to live.
Here is the link to the article:
CU-Boulder researchers: Pine beetles not always tied to increased fire danger
Annular Eclipse of the Sun
I had heard about the upcoming eclipse, but I hadn’t realized until Friday morning that it was a full annular eclipse near this part of the world. So I started researching where I needed to go to see the whole thing.
The red line was the center of the eclipse. The blue lines denote the limits of where the moon was visible entirely within the outline of the sun. (Click for larger.)
I wanted to be somewhere south of the upper blue line. In the hopes of somehow combining some interesting scenery with the eclipse, I finally settled on going to Valley of the Gods in southern Utah (pink dot on the map).
By the time I finally got the Xterra loaded with camping and photography gear, it was raining/snowing around noon on Saturday. I knew I wasn’t going to make it all of the way to the Valley of the Gods, so my first night was spent in one of my favorite places near Arches National Park, Klondike Bluffs.
Klondike was warm and clear. Once I settled on a camping spot (there was no one around for miles), I set up my camera and did a few test shots of the sun. Overall, an idyllic evening.
The sun before the eclipse, with sunspots visible on the surface.
