Renewal

• Pine, Colorado. Buffalo Creek burn area.

• 39.382211, -105.382613

• Reading Time: 0 min 30 sec

“The beauty of nature is in the way she rebounds to regain a foothold, even after the carnage of the 1996 Buffalo Creek Fire. The fire, consuming 12,000 acres of ponderosa pine forest, was followed by biblical flashing flooding. The small community of Buffalo Creek, spared by fire but was close to being washed into the Platte River by muddy torrents.

These burn areas are fascinating to explore in a walk down long-closed forest service roads. The aspens are making the first upwardly stand; the pines creep along as sprigs in the crunchy often Mars-like landscape and lush grass hugs near craggy splits in the earth where water tends to gather.

It’s all coming back. Not now, not tomorrow but in a beautifully slow waltz of generational renewal.”