Just Another Smoky Sunset

Sunset over Magdalena through the Wallow Fire smoke plume, June 2011

Out here in western New Mexico it is still hot, windy, dusty, smoky... Last night I kept looking outside at the deep red sunset and thinking, gee, I should get my tripod, but I was too lazy. So tonight I was prepared, and I'm glad I made the effort (which really was minimal) because the wind and smoke pretty much kept me inside today. The Wallow Fire in eastern Arizona is up to half a million acres but is now almost 40% contained, even with moderately high winds this weekend, thanks to the absolutely heroic efforts of the 4000 firefighters and others working to tame this beast. It's still raging, for sure; people in the western New Mexico town of Luna have just been ordered to evacuate because the Wallow Fire jumped a hard-won containment line in that area. Several fires have cropped up within New Mexico, too, including a fast-growing wildfire northeast of Santa Fe (downwind of that beautiful city, thankfully, but nonetheless nerve-rattling), which is leading to restrictions and closures of National Forest areas such as the Sandia Mountain Wilderness in and east of Albuquerque.

Rain, please.