Morgan Fire Hike, One of Four

Last weekend I trekked about a mile into the Morgan Fire burn scar. I drove up Mount Diablo and hiked from the summit down the Summit Trail toward North Peak. This afforded some good views of the burn area. As an added bonus, it's tarantula season so there should be some big spiders coming out of their nests soon.


On the drive up, the burn scar begins to emerge at about 15,500 feet. From the road, the damage's extent is somewhat visible. Here there's a hard break where the fire simply ended, and a lot of tilled ground, indicating a fire line.


The dark, burned area, here exhibits exaggerated darkness because of a cloud's shadow. That side of the mountain, though, is basically charcoal.


The fire moved up this slope, singing the bushes and leaving a macabre chaos of black, tangled arms reaching upward as if for escape.


Here the fire's extent is slightly more visible with darker, fire-damaged areas along North Peak's base.