Yosemite Photos, Video and News

At 7:30pm the sky cranes are still coming in one after another to suck water out of the Merced River right next to Hwy 140 in El Portal and then they start their long climb out. El Portal is at 2,000' and then they have to climb to 4,000' +.

Just heard that Hwy 120 will probably be closed for another couple of days. Also heard on the scanner one of the pilots talking about some line holding tonight and he gave it a 50% chance. I think they are talking about the retardant line between the fire and the rim of the canyon that drops down to El Portal. They also mentioned that it looks like they will be her for a couple of days.

The fire is almost to where the huge 1990 A-Rock fire started from a single lightning strike. That fire burned for weeks, burned up the town of Foresta, closed Yosemite for weeks, and cost who knows how much. It was a let burn fire on 8/10/1990 on one the hottest and driest August's in years. NPS let it burn and boy did it.

If the evening down slope winds hit hard the fire may jump the lines and head towards the town of El Portal, just like in 1990. Lets hope they have plans in place in case this happens.

The fire from Crane Flat lookout 8/27/09. This is looking east towards Yosemite Valley. You an see the fire heading towards Crane Flat

Tanker making a drop just west of Foresta. This is the area where the 1990 fire started and El Portal is on the other side of the ridge down 2,000' into the canyon.