I love being outdoors - and Colorado in the summer is the best!  

Saturday night, we  found ourselves camping at 

Goose Creek Campground, west of Deckers - in the Hayman Fire burn area.

 

In 2002, the largest wildfire in Colorado history was started by human origin.  12 years later, the landscape is vastly different.

 

Blackened trees are now softer browns and grays.  No longer cloaked in pine forests, the landscape is a fascinating geology of 

hills and valleys.  Large boulders and granite outcroppings, once hidden by the forests, are revealed in dramatic beauty.

 

 

Oases of green appear here and there, like our campground on Goose Creek.  Now surrounded by open land, you can see where the fire came right to the edge of the campground and surrounded it.  Seeing the burned trees and open landscape, I imagine the firestorm that must have threatened this lovely spot.  The campground caretaker said it was saved by strategic drops of fire retardant. 

 

 

 

Everywhere, wildflowers and young aspens paint the earth with renewal and colors of joy - and we saw butterflies everywhere too!

 

 

"In the Burn" - plein air study, Hayman Fire Burn area.  Original acrylic on canvas, 11" x 14".