Our third week in Colorado started with air quality alerts. The sky over much of Colorado was filled with smoke from the California Dixie wildfire. We stayed inside the first and second day except for an 80 mile jeep journey to Frisco and Breckenridge. They were a little less smokey and we walked around both towns and had dinner in Breckenridge.
By the fourth day the air quality alert improved to moderate and we went for a run. The next day we went for a hike in Rocky Mountain NP. We decided to hike to Cascade Falls which is in the south west corner of the park. This portion of the park was devastated by the East Troublesome wildfire in October, 2020. The areas affected were starting their recovery this summer.
Info from the Colorado Encyclopedia:
"One of the most destructive wildfires in Colorado history, the East Troublesome Fire began on October 14, 2020, in the central Rocky Mountains east of Troublesome Creek in Grand County. A week later, high winds whipped the fire into a 100,000-acre inferno racing northeast through Grand Lake and into Rocky Mountain National Park. By the time snows and colder temperatures halted the fire in late October, it had killed two people, destroyed more than 400 houses and other structures, and burned 193,812 acres, making it the second-largest fire in state history. "