I returned to my Jackson Hole cabin in August to build a driveway monument to mark my house number.  You might recall that lawyers and developers snitched about 400′ of my property when I was in Antarctica in 2004/5 which ended up in court.  My drive is now 30′ east and 3′ higher……..  Note the earlier posts here about how my driveway was altered….

Problem is that a bunch of dumb tourists, bent on polluting our atmosphere by releasing mylar balloons, triggered a massive fire that consumed the southern face of the butte, burning over the Ridgecrest into the homes above.  Follow the destruction–now prevalent in the West:

Mylar balloons have aluminum in them which arced the high voltage lines exploding and igniting the base of the Butte.

Flames bolted 30-40′ high as the south gully acted as a chimney.  Thirty minutes and it crested to the summit 1500′ above.

Over the crest into the homes–which were all built on the ridge-crest violating the city building codes….oh, well, those laws are for the small people (quoting Leona Helmsley).

An hour later, the destruction is complete however the fire rages across the east face and up the draw where the road accesses our homes.

Like a cancer, it now slowly progresss up the road access–the first “zig” is below the smoke.

I drive up the Spring Creek development to the north to watch the flames crest above the road.

This is a summit view with the fire breaching into homes under construction.  Huge tanker jets bring in the orange stuff and start spraying the butte.  My house is on the lower right.

These are amazing agile four engine jets that swoop down at 25 degree dives blanketing areas previously marked by a small lead plane that identifies drop area like a sky-writer. These pilots know what they’re doing…..

Trees explode like a popcorn kernel.  Fortunately winds are weak.

After the fire retardant is dropped, things quiet down.  I was ordered off the butte with 5 minutes to spare.  I left with anything I could grab on my way out of the house.  I returned the next day under the sheriff’s escort and shut down the house and locked it up.  I’m returning next week to clean up.

I would like to thank our public fire departments and emergency response people–this is where our taxes are well spent.  A century ago, this butte was always a cattle grazing area with a spring active in the saddle seen located at the bottom of this photo.  My house is located also at the bottom of this photo (can’t see it) next to an old cabin and there are no records of fires like this over the past 100 years.  Our climate/environment is changing.  I am lucky.

Oh, I began with a driveway monument….stay tuned!