New life and growth is returning to Yosemite National Park in California, USA after a large fire. 

Today's Family Trip

I took the family to Yosemite National Park today and if was the first time that my youngest son has seen the park. Once again, I was amazed at the beauty of the park. There are amazing views everywhere you look and it is refreshing to see this area set aside to be devoted to let us enjoy the wonders of nature. 

How I Heard About the Fire

My family lives a couple of hours away from the park. In 2016, I recall there being thick smoke in the air at our house (over 130 miles away). The news reported that a large fire had hit Yosemite and was growing rapidly. I was amazed at the amount of smoke in the air by our house. However, I did not realize the extent of the fire until I visited the park today. 

About the Fire... 

Here are some images of the fire when it was at its peak. This first one is of "half dome", which is a scenic mountain carved out of the movements of the glaciers and years of gradual erosion. It appears that the mountain is on fire! 

Here is what the same mountain looks like regularly: 

Here is a pic of the fires smoldering into the night: 

The result is typically a barren wasteland after the fire has made its way through the trees: 

The trees at Yosemite are amazing. However, when a fire occurs, it is easy to see how the fire can spread so easily. Many of the trees grow high up in the air. When one of these catches on fire, the embers for the blaze can travel for over a mile. In Yosemite, there is plenty of fuel for a fire to spread quickly. In addition, the terrain is a series of steep mountains and valleys, causing a situation in which fires can spread far and wide, even with the best efforts of our dedicated firefighters. 

Life returning after the fire

On our way up to the park, we began seeing miles of the burned trees that were still standing, even though there was just a blackened trunk remaining. However, surrounding these burned trunks were lush green growth coming up from below. Some of these were smaller trees that were coming up to restore the greenery and life that had been there before the fire. These smaller trees had either somehow survived the fire, or in some cases, were a part of a sprouting seed that had come from the trees in the previous generation. 

New Life! 

This new growth was encouraging to see! It proved that nature always finds a way to survive and grow. Once again, I was amazed at the wonders of our planet. Although this fire was caused by a lightning strike (not a campfire, etc.), the fire was natures way of clearing out some of the older trees to make way for new growth. Fires caused by lightning goes back before recorded time and is a part of nature. I was encouraged to see how nature was bouncing back from the fire. This was a huge opportunity to see this recovery first hand! 

Here are some additional pictures of new growth restoring the damage that had been done by the fire: 

As you can see, the younger green trees look healthy and eager to reach for the sky. 

References: http://www.grindtv.com/random/amazing-photo-shows-yosemites-half-dome-on-fire/

All of today's images were taken with my iPhone6