Pictures from inside the Las Conchas fire

[passthrough]

PJHUNTER and me finally were able to get up in the woods to check our camera. The camera did not survive the fire. We opened the box and found a heap of melted plastic. But to our surprize the sd card survived. Here are some of the last pictures before it died.

Its pretty amazing that the fire moved through the area so fast. It looks like it took all of 3 minutes to burn the trees in the view. We saw a ton of elk and deer pounding the new growth, they look to be in good condition. It gettin to be that time of year. Here are a couple of the locals...

 

[NMBOWHUNTR]

Awesome pics! that is a trip how fast it went up. Sucks about your camera and area but it will come back. How bad does the forest look in your area? Is it matchsticks or did some of the vegetation survive?

 

[NMboltripper]

WOW!!!

Great pictures! Thanks.

 

[2tuna]

That's an amazing sequence!

Very very cool.

 

[JB148]

Awesome pictures, thanks for sharing. JB

 

[NMPaul]

Great sequence of pics. Some quality animals coming in also.
Looks like that bear is crossed with a grey hound.

 

[cosmic_cowboy]

WOW Very cool pics thanks for sharing.
Amazing how fast the fire moved.

 

[twdjr]

Looks like you had a good hunting spot located. Sorry you lost the camera in the fire. Nice series of pics, thanks for sharing.

 

[TOPGUN]

Watching the temperature go up almost 20 degrees in two minutes before it went blank wes something.

 

[elkmuzzleloader]

Very cool to see, but also sad to see at the same time. Thanks for sharing and know that the area will return and look even better in the near future.

 

[nmelktrout]

Wes, that is one of the most incredible set of trailcam sequences I've ever seen.

www.streamflies.com

 

[DreaminOf200]

Dude, that is friggin' awesome! Being such a historical fire, I think I'd have to find a way to frame up that sequence and put it on display. Thanks for posting them up!

 

[crazyelk]

Wes,

Those pics are awsome! The sequence of events are some of the best I've seen. Unreal that the sd card survived. I can't wait to share those pics with our fire managers. Some work with the Santa Fe NF and worked that fire. I'm sure we can learn a lot about wildfire from your pics. I will contact you directly to for more details. Thanks for sharing.

 

[troutbum]

Wow awesome pics...I cant believe the SD card survived as well.Ya should send those pics to the to the company who made your camera and SD card.Maybe they will send you a new one for some publicity on how good of pics your camera took in extreme conditions.

 

[Reuben_Soady]

+1 to Elktrout "That is one of the most incredible set of trailcam sequences I've ever seen."

+1 to Troutbum too!

WOW.

 

[TerynItUp]

I sure do love bulls with those wide thirds, awesome pictures man, too cool.

Hunt Hard. Shoot Straight. Kill Clean. Apologize to No One.

 

[DUKFVR]

THANKS for the awesome pics. You oughta send those pics into trailcampro.com . They have a yearly photo contest. Bet you would have a good chance at winnning. Best pics I have ever seen.

 

[outdoorsdude]

Absolutely Phenomenal!!

I did have to chuckle about the temperature reading. I was no where in the area but I am certain it was warmer than 106F.

Thank you for sharing.

 

[WITUfan]

Interesting photos. Thanks for posting them.

 

[philthy]

Very interesting, indeed! I took a trip up on the bike Saturday and the Valle Grande is looking pretty and green. I only went about 5 miles east of there since I didn't have rain gear and it started raining. Seeing what I did see brought back the nightmares of the Rodeo-Chedeski fire over in AZ a few years back. Here's a pic taken right by the VC entrance.

Here's the house right across from the entrance. These folks were real lucky!

 

[Gator]

Those are some great shots, looks like the wildlife is coming back strong to the area's that was hit hard.

"I have found if you go the extra mile it's Never crowded".

 

[WFGinNM]

Passthrough, It's awesome that the memory card survived. Very nice pictures.

Gator, I don't understand your statement "looks like the wildlife is coming back strong to the area's that was hit hard."

Pictures from SR 4 are from the fringe of the fire, off to the east it's like a bomb hit.

--Bill

 

[Gator]

It looks to me like the ground was pretty bare(burnt off) so I was thinking the fire, Had burnt most of the grass and underbush, And that the recent rains had started new growth in the area's that the fire had move thru and over, And that the elk and deer have moved back in those area's to feed once again.

"I have found if you go the extra mile it's Never crowded".

 

[WFGinNM]

Gator, I just reread what I wrote. Didn't mean to come off sounding like an A$$. It can only get better up there.

--Bill

 

[mozey]

Not to be an A$$ myself, but if you look at the dates on those pics, all of the animals were before the fire came through (amazing pics bytheway). So it's hard to say whether that particular area is making a recovery or not. I'm just happy that his SD card survived. That is amazing.

Some of the areas that I've been in, the grass is making a comeback already. Other places are still lunar-like and I expect they'll continue to be that way for a few years. I saw a tree today that was still burning: looked like a big stack with heat/smoke coming out of the top. It's been over a month since the fire blew through there.

The ongoing bad part is all the erosion. I was in an area a couple weeks ago where a bunch of the trees on both sides of the stream survied the fire, but they're gone now: a flash flood took 'em out. Place does not look in anyway how I remember it.

Found three dead bulls so far that looked like they survived the fire but then got caught in a flash flood... :-(

 

[mozey]

Sorry Gator, now I see that you were referring to phlthy's post. My bad.