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By now you have likely heard about the massive and out-of-control forest fire currently raging around Yosemite National Park in California. I not only heard about it last week, I encountered the beast right after it exploded like an angry fire-breathing dragon bent on mass destruction.
My family was on our way to the Berkeley Tuolumne Family Camp, just outside the West Gate of Yosemite for a wonderful week of old fashioned summer camp fun when we were stopped by park rangers: “No traffic is going through the West Gate due to a fire that suddenly exploded from 50 acres to 800 and jumped the highway.”
At that point, we had no doubt the fire was not only quickly growing, but also dangerously close, as the darkened smokey afternoon sky was now raining ash upon our car. Turning around was obviously the only option. Silently, I fretted over the fate of our beloved camp, a historic camp that many California families refer to as their “favorite place on earth.”
After a 12-hour drive, I was lamenting the fact that we were only 20 minutes away from Tuolumne Family Camp and yet so far, now that a blazing fire stood between us and a week of fun, when my youngest daughter exclaimed in a very worried voice, “But Mama, where will all of the forest animals go?”
My two daughters are always worried about the welfare of animals and Ella’s question jerked me back to the present. I told her that animals have much better eyes, ears and noses than we do and when they sensed the danger they quickly fled to safety. That is what I guessed to be true anyhow, and it seemed like the best thing to say to a now very anxious 7-year old child watching ash and smoke swirl around us.
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