Pinetop

The first week of school, Brian and Kamille treated us to three days in Pinetop. We had a great time relaxing and getting out of the heat for a few days. We did a little junkin' and a bit of exploring. We wanted to drive around the areas affected by the Wallow fire. We first drove to Greer. Most of the town was fine, until you got to the southeast corner, where many trees and a few buildings were burned. On the road into Greer, we saw evidence of fires, though. We also drove around Big Lake. Our fear was that the forest nearest the lake was gone, but it wasn't. There had been spot fires in the meadows getting to the lake, but the area around the lake was good. Everywhere we went seemed to be so vacant. I think people feared the worst and were staying away. There was lots of forest burned on the road to Springerville/Eager, but the town itself seemed okay. The next spot we wanted to go was to Alpine, where Uncle Beans and Aunt Lorna's cabin is. We have so many good memories there and would be saddened if it were gone. On the road to Nutrioso and Alpine, there was a lot of burned areas...especially in the hills surrounding the towns. But the towns were, for the most part, just fine. The cabin was good, but there had been a small burn in the meadow area near the cabin (less that 1/4 mile away!). The firefighters did an amazing job protecting property! We drove over to Luna and saw some sections of burned areas there. Our next little jaunt was down to Hannagan Meadow. WOW! It looked like a scene from a science fiction movie. For miles and miles and miles, all you saw was black and orange trees (the tree trunk and branches were burned black and the pine needles were burned orange). It was so sad to see the destruction of that fire. That scene lasted almost all the way to Hannagan Meadow. And it was raining the day we drove down there and every little bit you could see where flooding had occurred due to the lack of vegetation on the forest floor. We didn't linger long, since we didn't want to get trapped by a flash flood! We are saddened by the terrible devastation done to the forest, but there is still a LOT of forest that is pristine and beautiful!! It's just tragic that it will take generations for the forest to be returned to its natural beauty in the burned areas.
All in all, we had a wonderful time in Pinetop and look forward to our next trip there!!