June 20, 2012 – A smoky sunset on the Great Plains. The summer of 2012 was devastating in terms of the size and number of wildfires in Colorado. The largest of the season was the High Park Fire in the mountains west of Fort Collins. It was three weeks from the time it was first reported on June 9 to the time it was contained on June 30. In the interim it burned 87,250 acres making it the second largest wildfire on record in the state at the time.
While camping on the eastern plains on June 20 in Morgan County some 40 miles east, I took this picture. Stunning, orange sunsets in this area are not unusual but the smoke plume trailing across the horizon from the fire made this one quite different.
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