Description

The Rough Fire burns from the Buck Rock fire lookout tower in the Sequoia National Forest, 2015. This is the extreme wide-angle view of the scene where I captured the 3-image panorama of the same fire, showing the density and maturity of the forest consumed by the blaze. To reach Buck Rock lookout tower, you must drive on windy mountain roads for two hours, then take a 4x4 dirt track up more winding switchbacks. You then park and hike up hundreds of feet of steep stairs, leading you to the historic tower perched atop a massive rock of granite at 8,502 feet. Hiking in fire boots with a backpack of cameras and lenses, you felt each step! Two weeks later the fire threatened the same tower and nearly over-ran it, showing how many miles these megafires move. 7360 × 4912 pixels