Orleans Dance Fire

The first evening of my road trip last year was spent at the home of some friends in Orleans, California. Orleans is a small community of about 600 people, in northern Humboldt County, about 85 miles inland from Eureka. Last July, someone lit a fire on the gravel bar down by the Klamath River. It soon spread to the neighboring hills and threatened the entire town, which was evacuated. The firefighters fought frantically and brought the fire (which was named the Dance Fire) under control in a few days. Unfortunately, one home and 500 acres of woods were lost to the fire.

I stayed there right after Labor Day and a friend told me of this grove of manzanita trees that had burned but were still standing, frozen in an incredibly colorful mass of twisted forms and shapes. I went there and took these photos. This was the second day I had ever used a digital camera, so I ended up not getting as good a quality photo set than I would have might have gotten with a little more experience. Also, on a few photos I used the "paint" function and, although the images looked good on my viewfinder, seeing them full size on my computer was a different matter!

However, some shots turned out pretty well, I think...