Fire on the mountain

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Before I head to bed, I'd like to share a photo that I took from the Sunset Point rest area off of I-17 yesterday afternoon. I don't stop there often, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share this here. I was sure kicking myself for deciding to leave the Nikon home today. It's probably a good thing I did, though, because I get easily sidetracked when I have a 'real' camera in hand! This is the Rattlesnake Fire, which is burning near Bumble Bee, Arizona. It's currently at around 4,000 acres. It's not an immediate threat to any structures or infrastructure in the area, so the plan is for the firefighters to proactively manage the area to keep it from jumping over the rim of the canyon. The terrain in the area is so rugged that they really can't do much to attack it head-on. Considering that it's not too far from the town of Yarnell, where 19 members of a local hotshot crew died fighting a fire a few years ago, I'm sure they're going to stay as safe as possible while handling this fire. I could see the flames across the canyon while I was driving back up the hill from Black Canyon City tonight. I would have stopped to take a picture from Sunset Point, but the flames were hidden behind a ridge from that direction.