The Waterline Road in the San Francisco Peaks reopened in October. It had been closed for more than two years in the aftermath of the Pipeline Fire. That fire occurred in the same area as the Schultz Fire (2010) and managed to burn what had been spared by the earlier fire. After two years of work, the Waterline Road was safe for the general public to use again.

We rode our mountain bikes up the road and were saddened–but not surprised–by the destruction of the fire. There had been a lot of new growth after the 2010 fire–especially with new aspen trees already attaining heights of 10 to 20 feet. All this burned in 2022. Once again, new growth is taking place but most of it is still quite small.

The Inner Basin, however, was mostly spared by the 2022 fire and here were many aspen trees in full autumn colors. Along the road there are a few locations where you can get a wider view of the trees and the mountains but mostly the only view along the road…is the road.