Deep Wounds
By Four Walls
@FourWalls (62120)
United States
July 18, 2019 7:42pm CST
It’s been two and a half years since a wildfire roared through the Great Smoky Mountains near Gatlinburg, killing 14 and destroying a number of homes.
The Smokies are a favorite place of mine. After all the running around I spent an evening there yesterday. I went to my favorite overlook on the Gatlinburg Bypass to admire the late evening beauty.
Amid the beauty I saw the deep, deep wounds left by that fire. Trees stood lifeless as a testament to what happened.
The scars seem much more obvious than they were. I suppose that’s because the rest of the area has had time to “recover,” while the damaged area is frozen in that terrible day in 2016.
As usual, the patches of damage amid the lesser-damaged and untouched areas are astonishing. You can still see charred marks on one side of the trees, then trees next to them with no damage (or little enough to have survived).
I drove into the park to an overlook where Chimney Tops was visible. That’s where the fire started in November 2016. The marks on the mountain side tell the story.
And yet....
As I turned to leave I saw a bear cub ambling across the road.
A sign that the park will be okay. Different, with those deep wounds showing for decades to come, but okay.
9 people like this
7 responses
@FourWalls (62120)
• United States
20 Jul 19
There’s a park in Utah called Arches, filled with naturally-formed rock arches. One of them collapsed a couple of years ago. Changed the landscape forever....but it’s still beautiful. “Can’t wait” to get there!
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (325759)
• Rockingham, Australia
21 Jul 19
@FourWalls We have a few nice arches in Australia too.
1 person likes this
@velvet53 (22528)
• Palisade, Colorado
20 Jul 19
It is sad what a fire can do to the forests and wildlife. All will heal there some day and hopefully no remains from the fire will be seen. We have a lot of ares here in Colorado that have many wounds too. I am not sure how that fire started but I do know that a lot of them in Colorado was started by humans.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (62120)
• United States
20 Jul 19
One of our semi-regular myLotters is from Colorado, too, and he's commented about what wildfires have done to areas that he loved to hike in.
What's most tragic is an estimate 85% of wildfires have human origins.
1 person likes this
@rsa101 (37952)
• Philippines
19 Jul 19
It'll take time to recover but if they are left untouch they will eventually heal. Human intervention might help also by replanting the site might also help it covered back by nature. I love looking at the picture where its almost covered with green trees.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (62120)
• United States
19 Jul 19
They did have to do some "intervention," because so much of the ground was burned they were scared of mudslides. They seeded the ground so grass would grow back and lessen that chance.
@FourWalls (62120)
• United States
19 Jul 19
TONS of hiking. The Appalachian Trail runs through part of the park. There are trails ranging from handicapped accessible to serious backpackers only hikes. The more popular hikes are rated on several websites.
My favorite hike there was to Grotto Falls, the one waterfall you can walk behind in the Smokies. It was tough (about a 600 foot elevation gain over the course of the hike) but WELL worth it.
@JohnRoberts (109857)
• Los Angeles, California
19 Jul 19
You aren't going to like my comments about the Great Smokies.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (62120)
• United States
19 Jul 19
Everyone has different tastes. You’re probably wondering what all those trees are doing on the mountains, just like I wondered where the trees went when I went out west.
1 person likes this
@janethwayne (5193)
• Philippines
19 Jul 19
The place looks nice and the leaves of the trees are green and healthy.
1 person likes this
