Theater & Wildfire

For the past few days I have been in this lovely mountain town. My first activity was to attend the ballet Cinderella by the State Street Ballet of Santa Barbara, CA; this event was held at the Spencer Theater--a beautiful site on a large campus with seating for 514. Adding to the performance was the display of glassworks by artist Dale Chihuly--my third time to see his works. And, as beautiful as the landscape appears, it is tarnished by the effect of a very large wildfire, the Little Bear Fire, in 2012; the campground I am residing at lost eight structures and the evidence of fire comes right to the campground boundary. The grounds were evacuated at 2 AM on a

Sunday morning as the fire topped the adjacent mountain. The roadside fire damage photo shows a burned mountainside; on the other side of that ridge, down in the valley, is my campground, and a second fire photo is from the campground looking back over that same ridge from an opposing perspective. Pretty scary times indeed. The campground office has photos of black bear which used to wander into the area regularly; since the big burn, sightings are infrequent.