Waldo Lake, Nine Years Later

© Punkin Dunkin Productions

In 1996, a fire burned more than 10,000 acres of forest at Waldo Lake. The fire reached the north shore of the lake. Today the destruction is still visible and the burned area is eerily silent compared to the rest of the forest. There are signs of life, however. Small clumps of grass, little purple flowers and a few tiny lodge pole pines peeking up through the dusty and charcoal covered ground show that the earth is slowly healing herself.