King Fire, Smoke

Forest, Smoke - Sierra Nevada  2014

As we drove east on Highway 50 going towards Lake Tahoe we could see a highly visible plume of smoke off to the north. Getting closer to the small town of Pollack Pines the smoke became much closer and well-defined . . . and then it was behind us.

This was the start of the King Fire, an extremely large and dangerous wildfire in the Sierra foothills. Smoke from the fire settled into our campground for two straight afternoons (nice and clear in the mornings), the second afternoon worse than the first, affecting not only visibility but our breathing.

So we decided to move up our departure by one day, leaving to drive the short distance to South Lake Tahoe in order to investigate the casinos there.