Fire and Hike

Last night there was a forest fire above The Air Force Academy - both we can see from our house. This morning we headed out early to climb a mountain north of the area that was burned last night.

The fire is under control today.....

....but helicopters are continuing to monitor it and douse it with water. It was fascinating to watch the helicopter make multiple trips to fill with water at a lake near the mountainside....


....and then head back to the mountainside to release the water.

These pictures are not very clear because we were watching from far away!

The mountain today which shows the charred area that burned last night (the two patches to the right of the smoke).

Meanwhile, we hiked to the top of Mt. Hermon today. It was a challenging climb, but the view at the top was well worth it.