Wetherill Mesa revisited

In early August 2000, the Pony Fire swept into Mesa Verde NP from Ute lands to the southwest. A little earlier, the Bircher Fire had started just outside park boundaries to the east of the park. The two swept toward each other and, when it was all over, approximately 29,000 acres had burned, almost 21,000 of them inside the park's boundaries. One of the areas hardest hit was Wetherill Mesa, at the western edge of the park. While in October of 2000 there were already 10-inch oak shoots in Morefield Canyon (swept over by the Bircher Fire), Wetherill has been slow to regrow.

I went out there today to refresh my memory on the scene, and here are a few pictures of it, almost eight years after the Pony Fire. At the top is the view of the rebuilt contact station, looking south from the restrooms. Next is a group returning to the contact station on the walking trail ... not much shade there! Looking through the piñon/juniper forest that used to cover the mesa is a Halloween scene. Still, there is beauty in the spring flowers beginning to flourish in the first couple of feet above the surface of the ground, like this Mariposa lily with a brightly colored beetle in its bloom. tv