Salt Creek Fire

On our way home from Cedar City, we decided to take a little detour and went on I-15 from Cedar City to Nephi so we could check out the Salt Creek Canyon fire. Highway 132 just opened this morning so we wanted to get a first hand tour of the devastation. The first three pictures you see we took coming out of Salt Creek Canyon (toward Fountain Green). There was a helicopter there picking up water to dump on flames way at the top of the canyon on the south side--up by the red cliffs you may remember seeing to the south when leaving Nephi.

These last three pictures were taken as we were driving through the canyon from Nephi to Fountain Green. We weren't allowed to stop--there were signs everywhere to not stop or go up any side roads. They were all closed. In fact, they had Search and Rescue people, ambulances, highway patrolmen, and local authorities blocking each side road. Firefighters were just off the road taking care of hot spots. Curt did a good job taking these pictures as we were moving. I still don't know for sure about my brother Gary's property up at Thousand Oaks. He did have his trailer out before the fire but had left a generator, chain saw, and some other things there. This really was a huge fire--most of the canyon is blackened. Most of the old KOA campground is gone. The other campground just east of it doesn't look like it was touched (as you can see in the 2nd photo). The firefighters were also able to save the homes down in the canyon, thank heavens.