Here is still another Idaho fire, apparently so new it isn’t on Inciweb yet. It’s the Red Bluff Fire.
Lynne Stone of Stanley, Idaho took these photos of its plume yesterday from highway 21, north of Stanley.
Photos copyright © Lynne Stone.
Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He has been a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and also its President. For many years he produced Ralph Maughan's Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of "Hiking Idaho." He also wrote "Beyond the Tetons" and "Backpacking Wyoming's Teton and Washakie Wilderness." He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
I believe this is actually part of the Cascade Complex as it hit the Middle Fork of the Salmon yesterday. It has burned from Clear Creek on the North Fork of the Salmon all of the way to where Elkhorn Creek enters the Middle Fork. Elkhorn enters just downstream from Sulfur Creek and upstream from Pistol Creek.
Dear Buffaloed – you may well be right … I called the Middle Fork Ranger District to try and obtain more information as Inciweb doesn’t have any new info on the Red Bluff fire at this time. The plume photos may well be from the Cascade Complex.
When I was watching the plume from Cape Horn with compass and map, it did seem that the Red Bluff fire was more to the north. Regardless, the plume was impressive in a summer of impressive plumes. Will let you know what I hear. I did hear in Stanley that there was a “fire just over the ridge”… fortunately for us near Stanley, the fire was apparently part of the Cascade Complex – that’s how deceptive smoke can be.
Wow, the west side of the Frank has really burned.
I wonder what per cent of the Boise and Payette National Forests has burned in the last ten years?