Images of 2002 Grizzly Gulch Fire

Here are a few photos of the Grizzly Gulch Fire in 2002 shot with just enough exposures left on a roll of film.

Reproduce them at will:

From Whitewood Creek looking toward White Rocks: the fire is about an hour old at this stage

First aircraft on the scene

Shot from the slag pile

another shot from the slag pile

fire moving into Spruce Gulch, White Rocks on right

fire in Spruce Gulch

exploding out of Spruce Gulch

Photo shot from '59 burn: spot fire on Pillar Peak, at least a mile downwind of main fire

another shot of Pillar Peak area

Here's a snip from an article that appeared in the Rapid City Journal on 14 February, 2002:

Recently, the National Forest Protection Alliance (NFPA) issued a report challenging the way the 1,242,713-acre Black Hills National Forest (BHNF) is being managed. Working with the Black Hills Group of the Sierra Club, Biodiversity Associates and the Black Hills Sioux Indian Treaty Council, NFPA published "America's 10 Most Endangered National Forests," featuring it as the third-most endangered in the national forest system.

To be fair, much of the fire burned over BLM ground pock-marked with 130 years of mining scars overgrown with non-native plant species.