Fern Lake Fire in Colorado
October 14, 2012
Photographer: Richard Hahn; Richard's Web site
Summary Authors: Richard Hahn; Jim Foster
The photo above captures the Fern Lake wildfire in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), Colorado, as viewed several hours after it began -- October 9, 2012. It was taken from a pullout on Trail Ridge Road, southwest of Deer Mountain. The dark plume of smoke from burning trees, shrubs and grasses is rising from the canyon just west of Moraine Park in RMNP. An inversion layer has pushed low level clouds up against the rising smoke plume. Ponderosa pines (Pinus ponderosa), seen in the foreground, are being consumed by the fire as likely are hemlocks and lodgepole pines (Pinus contora) at higher elevations and on north facing slopes. Approximately 400 acres had been burned as of October 10.
Photo details: Canon 5D camera; Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens; 0.6 and 0.3 neutral density filters.