Colorado Wildfires

Burn scars from weeks of Western Slope wildfires have left the ground in a condition where even a short rainstorm can turn a dry gulch into something unrecognizable.

Nearly a thousand firefighters are working the Gold Mountain Fire alone — and that number tells you something about what crews are up against near Cimarron Ridge.

Grand Junction barely saw a drop of rain, but Unaweep Canyon got flash flooding and two brand-new fires in the same 24-hour stretch.

Residents are watching evacuation zones closely, while travelers should be prepared for smoky skies and changing road conditions.

Forty-one snow guns running in July — not to make snow, but to keep a wildfire from reaching the mountain. That's the kind of summer nobody at Steamboat planned for.

Three wildfires, three different corners of Colorado, three different causes — and all of them are still burning.

The Elk Fire started with a single lightning strike in some of the most rugged backcountry in Colorado — and getting crews in there is no easy task.

The Gold Mountain Fire is pushing hard toward Silver Jack Reservoir, and the communities around it are watching every wind shift.

The subdivisions tucked into the Cimarron Valley are right in the middle of this, and Zone 32 is now under a mandatory evacuation order.

Forty wildland firefighters have spent four days working steep drainages and dense pinyon-juniper terrain near De Beque.