Sun of a Hundred (Forest) Fires

For the past week, sunsets in much of the Rockies along the U.S. / Canada border have been spectacular, but not for a good reason. Particles from several dozen forest fires in this region have colorized the sky into unnaturally beautiful shades and made the air quality rather unhealthy. 

And yet, I kept missing my opportunities to capture and document the otherwordly Sun setting behind the smoke-filled horizon, meager selfies notwithstanding.

Until now.

This photograph will go nicely with similarly composed moonrise images I shot last year.

Nearing Apocalypse

A landscape that normally looks like this:

...has taken on a post-Apocalyptic quality as of late due to the dozens of forest fires in the entire northwest of Canada and the U.S. 

With a blood-orange Sun above and the mountains almost completely obscured by the smoke on the horizon line, this is what the "very unhealthy" air-quality rating looks like.

Indeed, this made doing open-water laps, mainly coming up for air, noticeably unpleasant, which means I underestimated the extent of the fires. If these conditions persist, I'd love to venture out with my DSLR, though staying indoors is advised.

Fire Walk with Me

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright 
In the forests of the night, 
What immortal hand or eye 
Could frame thy fearful symmetry? 
In what distant deeps or skies 
Burnt the fire of thine eyes? 
On what wings dare he aspire? 
What the hand dare sieze the fire? 
William Blake

The fires of the Northwest are many. Great or small; real or imagined, external, internal, and otherworldly. 

We must tend to them.

We are in Twin Peaks, after all.