Lightning ignited the 2017 Frye fire, which burned a lot of acreage in the Pinaleno Mountains, nearly up to the observatory telescopes on Mt. Graham. Conifer forests, overrun in intense crown-fire bursts, stand today only as skeletal trunks and branches. Fitting it was, then, that on my visit here, a dying mountain thunderstorm with breaks of blue sky textured the scene overhead. On this wet day, there would be no repeat of the inferno whose wrath set these trees dead, bare of leaves, and slowly peeling off charred bark.
11 SW Cactus Flat AZ (5 Jul 21) Looking WNW
32.6606, -109.8661