Bobcat Fire Aftermath

Big Santa Anita Canyon

SEPTEMBER 20, 2020 BY CHRIS KASTEN

This photo was taken just a couple of days ago by an unnamed fire fighter and posted on Instagram. Photo was taken near Chantry Flat and is looking north up toward Sturtevant Falls. The arrow tip is in the Fern Lodge area of the main canyon, where the Upper Falls Trail and Gabrielino Trail leave the canyon bottom, continuing up and past Sturtevant Falls toward Cascade Picnic Area and Spruce Grove trail camp. It appears that much of the canyon bottom tree canopy is still intact after the Bobcat Fire !

Attached are two photos taken of Big Santa Anita Canyon in the aftermath of the Bobcat Fire.   There’s a third photo here, too.  It is of the flames dropping into the upper Big Santa Anita Canyon during the fire’s early stages of development.  The first photo was taken a couple of days ago.  Here you’re looking up the canyon from a point near the trailhead at Chantry Flats.  The second photo was taken by Larry Webster of Mt. Wilson just a day ago.  The view is from the east end of the summit looking down toward Sturtevant Camp.  Note the smoke still curling up from either the camp or adjacent to it.  It’s still too early to know what the damage actually was to the camp or the nearly eighty private cabins up and down the Big Santa Anita Canyon and Winter Creek.   Updates to follow as they come in.

This photo was taken after the fire passed through,  by Larry Webster of Mt. Wilson, CA. That’s Monrovia Peak, highest point in center horizon of photo. At the tip of arrow is Sturtevant Camp. As of this writing, it’s unknown how the camp fared in the Bobcat Fire.

This photo was taken before the Bobcat Fire reached Mt. Wilson.  Sturtevant Camp’s heliport is marked by the small red arrow.  Coincidentally, the camp itself, is located at the bottom, or start,  of the arrow’s shaft.

The Bobcat Fire dropping down into upper Big Santa Anita Canyon. At the end of the little red arrow is the heliport at Sturtevant Camp. Photo taken from Mt. Wilson by Larry Webster.
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