Antelope Fire in Yellowstone

A week ago when we went into Yellowstone, we stopped for a couple of hours at a lookout over this wildfire. It was the largest of the 11 fires in Yellowstone this year. Shortly after we went through the Tower area, they closed the road as the fire was moving in that direction. They quite often let the fires burn, unless they are threatening life or buildings. In this case they were managing the fire and we watched as the helicopters dumped water on the fire and the planes spread fire retardant ahead of the fire. It was amazing how fast the flames torched trees and moved across the meadows.

If you look really close, you can see a couple of fire fighters at the top of the hill.

This tanker is being led by a small twin engine plane at the bottom left of picture.

This picture shows how large the smoke cloud is in comparison to the RV at left.