Last year, I had to cancel my trip to Butte Lake due to wildfires. I re-booked it again for this September but the outlook for wildfires is not looking good this year either unfortunately, with several large fires already happening. A campsite opened up last week so I thought I would go this weekend in case I had to call off my September trip, again. 

Well, even the early bird may not get the worm. The AQI on airnow.gov showed ‘unhealthy’ for today. The forecast looked to improve but judging by the webcams, it was going to be smoky. Was it going to be completely smoked out? Should I cancel? I was still debating at 10am. 

1. Forfeit and stay home 
2. Stop contemplating and just go

I hit the road. Ah, the open highway takes away some of my anxiety from the work week. It was hazy skies up north but still plentiful sunlight. It wasn’t until I headed east on 44 it started to get dense.  

After about 5 hours of driving, I arrived late afternoon. As expected, super smoky skies, but hey could be worse. Despite the questionable air quality, I started the Cinder Cone hike from my campsite which was luckily adjacent to the trail. After hiking through the forest, I saw the cinder cone, an ash volcano. It immediately brought me back memories to Cerro Negro in Nicaragua; I imagined myself sand boarding down the steep slope. 

It didn’t take me long to hike up, despite the infamous two steps forward, one step back. I was the lone soul at the top. For the next 3 hours, there was nothing but the sound of the wind and static on my radio from the Inspiration Point repeater. I was running around the cone looking for the best compositions as the sun turned into an orange sphere. Even through the haze, I still got some decent shots of the Painted Dunes. I managed to finish the 4 mile loop and make it back to the campsite just before it got completely dark.