Smoke surrounding the Valley is from two Western Slope fires burning in dry, windy conditions. Thousands of acres in the South Rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and in an area of the Uncompahgre National Forest are burning at zero percent containment as of Friday afternoon.
Wildfires in the Carson National Forest of neighboring northern New Mexico and the areas around Cañon Seco and La Madera are causing other air quality problems in the Taos Valley and southern parts of the San Luis Valley.
Evacuations were put in place at Black Canyon National Park and there is no timeline of when the park will reopen. There are no evacuations in place for Montrose County residents at this time.
The South Rim Fire was started from a lightning strike Thursday morning and as of Friday, more than 1,600 acres were burning in dry conditions, with daytime temperatures in the high 80s. The Colorado Sun reported that firefighters were able to save the log cabin-style visitor center early Friday morning.
A smaller fire is burning on the northern side of the canyon.
The Sowbelly Fire in the Uncompahgre National Forest was also caused by a lightning strike and has burned 2,200 acres, with zero percent containment.
Dry pinyon and juniper are fueling the fire in windy areas full of sage and grass. Firefighters are attacking the fire from the ground and from the air, according to updates from the wildfire watchdog site WatchDuty. Tankers carrying retardants are reported to be making regular drops.
“Fire behavior was significant yesterday due to high winds and hot temperatures, with a highly visible smoke plume from Hwy 50 between Grand Junction and Olathe,” the Bureau of Land Management Colorado wrote on a Facebook post on Friday morning. “Currently local resources and smoke jumpers are responding to the incident, but suppression has been a challenge due to difficulty accessing the fire based on terrain and location.”
Residents down Escalante Canyon, especially those past the “Pot Holes” recreation area in Montrose and Mesa Counties, were alerted to be on Pre-Evacuation Notice by the BLM. The Delta County Sheriff’s Office and Emergency Management also encouraged any campers in the area to leave the area and camp closer to Highway 50 so they can leave if the fire continues advancing into Escalante Canyon.
Naaman Horn, a public affairs specialist with the National Park Service, told Colorado Public Radio “one fire is building a pretty good column and growing quickly” and warned that more evacuations near the Black Canyon were likely.
