This photo looks through fire ravaged Manzanita in the foreground down to the Deep Creek Hotsprings area which is around the pool in the creek. This shot looks down from a hill that is just northeast of the springs and this picture was taken one week after the Willow Fire began its awesome journey through this area. Here we see such contrast, Ying and Yang, scorched landscape and the lush greenery surrounding the springs. The Willow Fire began on August, 28th, 1999 and burned for two full weeks untill finally contained. It eventually burned 64,000 acres! At the time of this picture the fire was still out of control far up in the mountains to the east. My friend Mr. AZ ( who the Arizona pool is named after ) and I witnessed this event first hand as this fire burnt through the Deep Creek Hotsprings area. We arrived on Saturday the 28th and eventually left in the afternoon on Sunday the 29th after the fire had raced past us in a firstorm of flames. We were camped a bit more than a mile upstream from the hotsprings. This fire jumped Deep Creek on Sunday morning around 11AM and proceeded with incredible speed west towards the hotsprings area and north towards the Bowen Ranch and eventually that day into the town of Apple Valley where it burnt many homes. I wrote a story about my experience to help me remember this amazing fire. I stayed to witness this event because I knew in my heart that this was something I should see. I am very connected to this area around the springs and have had so many good times there! I spent a bit more than 24 hours engaged in experiencing this fire from every vantage point, from veiwing it from the hills above Deep Creek Saturday night as it raced along in the distance to running from it when it chased us down the Pacific Crest Trail! So much experince in a short time. In the end we were fortunate. I breathed more smoke than I ever want to again but fortunatley this smoke did not become intense enough to choke us to death! My car and Mr. AZ's were parked on opposite sides of a large bush that should have gone up in flames. When we arrived back at our vehicles on Sunday the fire was raging through the Bowen Ranch area and beyond. This bush between our cars was smoldering at its base but it had amazingly not caught fire which would have been a bad scene for our cars. One tire on my car was the only casualty having caught fire when this inferno raced past our cars. Everything else around our cars was burnt. We escaped with a wild true story, smoke in our lungs and for me, one burnt tire! I will never forget this weekend of fire at the springs!
