Just read this on a facebbok page, is call arizona hiking, looks like the whole wilderness might burn, please read.
Just got back from another Woodbury Fire meeting from Roosevelt. The news is not good, in fact I would say it is completely devastating.
To make a long meeting short I will get right to it. Currently 0% containment and over 700 personal working the fire. As of right now they have stopped the northern movement of the fire at highway 88 and the Tortilla TH area due to the back burning that has been done there. They are continuing to back burn moving west towards Tortilla Flat. They have placed a sprinkler system around Tortilla Flat to try and protect it once the fire gets there. Also the owner of Reavis Mountain School (forgot his name) spoke for a minute and he is working with a crew to clear brush around the school area. Now the devastating news. Due to the extreme steepness of the terrain in the majority of the fire area they are unable to get crews on the ground to fight it. They also are not able to use air support without a crew on the ground in the area, apparently they work together. With that said the plan right now is to unfortunately let it burn until it moves closer to 88 on the east side and north side and comes off the cliffs on the west side. They have planned points on the east side on where they can start fighting it and are waiting for it to burn it's way through Reavis Canyon, Campaign Creek , Fish Creek.
I have included the latest fire map. As you can see the fire has made it's way up Reavis Saddle and is closing in on the ranch. They advised that it took a couple days for it to move on the east side as the manzanita was so thick it did not want to burn originally, however it has dried out the past couple days and they expect the fire to start to accelerate through the Reavis area. I have circled the fire on the east side in pink coming up the saddle with the Ranch and Roger's Canyon Cliff Dwellings circled in green. After the meeting I spoke to the Roosevelt Ranger one on one and they are fully expecting the fire to take the Reavis ranch area including the orchards and are hoping the Rogers Canyon Cliff Dwellings survive the fire due to their height in the canyon.
On the West side, they are also expecting it to continue it's movement and you can see on the map today the fire has now moved into Barks Canyon and is making it's way down La Barge Canyon to Charlebois and is moving into Boulder Canyon (circled in pink). On the south side the fire is sitting on top of Buzzards Roost where they may drop some water on it to stop that piece of the fire. The remaining south side end has been cold for a couple days (black line).
They did say the fire will not be out until the monsoons arrive and they are predicting a later then normal start this season, looking like the end of July.
I think that's about all that I can remember. Like I said beyond devastating news as we could be potentially watching 75% or more of the Superstition Wilderness burn in this fire. Like a lot of people here the Superstition are more then just a wilderness to me and words absolutely can not express how I am currently feeling.
