Bigfork Trip: August 4, 2007

Today, I went to an art & craft show in Bigfork, MT. It was a great show with lots of quality vendors. Bigfork is a beautiful little artist community on Flathead Lake.
Unfortunately, Bigfork's complete splendor couldn't be appreciated today because of dense smoke from nearby forest fires. The artists and crafters occasionally had to dust off ash from their artwork.
I took photos of the smoke on my trip home. There are a couple of very large fires, the Chippy Creek fire which produced the smoke that covered the northern end of Flathead Lake including Bigfork, and the Jocko Lakes fire which is near Seeley Lake. I could see the Jocko Lakes fire from as far away as Polson to the north and as far as Stevensville to the south. Approximately 200 homes were evacuated because of the Jocko Lakes fire. It's immense!
The top photo shows smoke from the Chippy Creek fire that obscures the near distant mountains and gives a near-dusk feel although this was taken while the sun was still high in the sky. The second photo shows smoke hanging in the trees. The bottom photo shows smoke from the enormous and dangerous Jocko Lakes fire.