Exciting Times at Catalina State Park

 

Exciting Times at Catalina State Park

We’ve been to Catalina State Park a number of times, and it’s never disappointed!  This time, however, we got a bit more excitement than we bargained for!

We like camping at Catalina State Park for a few reasons – there’s a nice back road to explore, which I covered in a previous post, the campsites are nicely spaced, so we’re never on top of the other campers, and the view is great!  We often sit at the back of our rig, to take advantage of the great open views, which include the Catalina Mountains.

We also get to have visits from the local roadrunner family – however extended that family is!  I have become a fan of the quirky looking roadrunner – doesn’t look at all like the cartoon version, and although they make a distinctive chirping type sound, it’s also nothing like the “Mbeep, Mbeep!” of the cartoon!

One evening, when Jeff took Max for his last walk of the evening, he called me outside.  As soon as I stepped outside, I smelled smoke, which was unusual, since the campground was under a burn ban.  We could see something off in back of the rig, beyond a ridge or two, that had an orange glow.  Wildfire?  I called 911 and the operator confirmed it was a wildfire, that people were already working on it, and at that point, there was no cause to evacuate the park.  The next morning, as we headed out for a grocery store run, we noticed the entrance to the park was closed.  When we checked with the ranger, he said that the park had been closed to new campers and day-use folks, due to the wildfire, but as of yet, the park didn’t need to be evacuated.  We couldn’t even smell the smoke any longer, because the breeze was blowing away from us, also keeping the fire away.  The ranger did tell us not to head too far away, in case the park did need to be evacuated.  Later in the morning, the firefighting planes were out, dumping the fire retardant foam off behind the ridge(s) where the fire was.  It was quite impressive to see, and a bit of an illusion, as the plane looked at times like it was going to crash into the landscape!

After one of the foam dumping runs, one of the planes flew directly over the campground, and I was able to get this shot of its underbelly.  The red color is the residue of the foam.  The plane was a very large plane, a DC-9.

Although the campground was not evacuated, since no new campers were allowed in, and several left, either because their reservation dates had expired, or because they decided to evacuate anyway, the campground began to have a bit of a “ghost town” feel to it.  We drove around both camping loops – ours was only about 1/3 filled, and the other was about half full.  Still, it made for a very quiet day and evening!

Enjoy!