Where There's Smoke...

Our El Portal office is surrounded by a haze of smoke this morning, and on my commute to work the round disc of the sun cut through the gray blanket of smoke in an orange blaze. Fire in Yosemite. During a series of lightning storms the last week of June, a fire began near the Mono Meadow trailhead on Glacier Point Road. The park service is taking aggressive action to stop its growth, but the fire has forced the closure of Glacier Point Road, and many trails in the surrounding area (Four Mile, Panorama). The usual view of Half Dome from our webcam has been obstructed by smoke the last two mornings (see below). We also had a rockslide this week that closed Happy Isles for a brief period. All we need now is a flood to make our natural disaster week complete!