It's another "est"!!

With visibility of up to 100 miles, the historic lookout station (built in 1939 by the Civilian Conservation Corp) is used to locate wildfires. Today it is only staffed during high fire danger periods, May through September.

Fire history 1933 - 2009

That's great! Except today is the 27th. Hmmmm.

The Park Point Overlook

Lovely views all around

Distant rainstorms

Shiprock - elevation 7,175 feet, distance away 46 miles (74 km)

This area seems to be from the July 2000 Bircher Fire. All the burnt trees we saw earlier were probably from the August 2000 Pony Fire.

This is what it might look like tonight... if it weren't for all the clouds!

We got back to the campsite around 7pm. Deer were everywhere! We set up the tent, had some dinner, and then took a lovely hot shower at the center near the ranger station. There were many people and it was quite noisy, but around 9 pm it started to rain lightly and they all retreated to their tents and campers. At 10 pm, a car alarm went off for a while. Sigh.

Sure... no hurry... take your time.

How come they are always on the passenger side of the car?!

He's so close I can't even get his legs if I wanted to!

Cheese and bread... the staples of any good dinner.