A little over a year ago, a wildfire burned through Cave Creek, Arizona, a community found 20 miles north of Phoenix, on the far side of Black Mountain. Cave Creek is made up mainly of large estates of open desert with million dollar homes. So a fire tearing through there could have been a financial disaster. Especially a fire that grew to 1000 acres within just a matter of minutes. But yet somehow, when all was over with, only one business and eight homes were burned down, including the one that produced this iconic image. What saved the day, literally, was the group of brave firefighters and their quick response, including the aerial firefighting squad. Eight planes and the helicopters simultaneously battled the blaze, in a concerted effort of circling around and one at a time entering in to make drops of water and fire retardant. Strangely enough, The Wild Images Team were living there on that fateful day, May 30, 2020. While most of the world was fighting the rising cases of COVID, Cave Creek and much of Arizona also had to contend with wildfires, lots of them. Due to an unusually rainy March, heavy desert brush growth had dried out under the hot May sun of the Sonoran Desert, and the entire area had become a tinder box. While this fire, named the Ocotillo Fire, was the most destructive one, it was not the first fire there that season. The East Desert Fire came to the edge of Cave Creek just two weeks before as seen here in each of these images. But the Ocotillo Fire started in and burned through the heart of Cave Creek. Thanks to the strategic flight patterns of the aerial firefighting squad, most homes were saved. In this image, a DC-10 makes an incredibly steep climb after flying at an altitude of only about a hundred feet or so above the desert ground while it drops the characteristic reddish pink fire retardant. It was an unbelievable sight to watch planes of this size make dives and climbs so low to ground. Below the retardant trail is its shadow which covers over the infamous 7th hole of the Rancho Manana Golf Course, the site of the origination of the fire. The bulk of the fire is to the right of and not seen in this particular photo, but The Wild Images Team captured multiple images of the height of the fire found here in the early days of our blog. As a matter of fact, the Ocotillo Fire and the earlier East Desert Fire were the original inspiration for our blog which has continued to this day. We did receive an evacuation order back then, as the fire approached within a half mile of our location and winds were carrying it quickly our way. At just the last minute, however, winds shifted to the northeast and stopped the approaching fire line in our direction. The Wild Images Team has captured many other photos in Arizona, such as the colorful storm buildup in the painted desert, the stark view of an incredibly tall monsoon cloud over desert, the sky covering massive anvil cloud over the mountains, the isolation in the curtains of rain over the Navajo Nation, the deep red lightning scene in the Mazatzals, the moment Zeus throws a bolt over Cave Creek, the network of colorful bolts over the Sedona ridges, the rainfall created colorful dry wash in bloom, the dangerous stripe-tailed scorpion climbing plants, the deep desert late night glowing bark scorpions, the dynamic image of a honeybee on an exotic wildflower, the view of a hummingbird among the thick wildflowers, a lucky shot of a great horned owl roosting in mesquite tree, the evening view of an organ pipe cactus, the serene scene of ocotillos and saguaro cacti, the view from Bell Rock of scrub brush and phenomenally colorful cliffs, this precarious Wupatki box canyon dwelling, a look up at the very majestic Wukoki Pueblo ruins, a chance encounter with a thunderstorm through a Wukoki Pueblo window, and the spiny sharp glass sculpture with cacti, each of which are available for sale in our store. Our blog posts from Arizona have documented the close up of a large stripe-tailed scorpion, the animated behavior of a great horned owl, the nearly daily encounters with the multitude of rattlesnakes, the mysterious darkness created by a very prominent Alexander’s Band between two brilliant rainbows, the crazy late sunset when red rain fell over the Mazatzal Mountains, monsoon season forming rain curtains hanging in front of the sunset, the sunset moment when delicate rain curtains fell in front of a darkening sky, spring rainfall creating a colorful desert bloom in a dry wash, the dynamic view of a honeybee equipped with dual pollen baskets among the blooms, the red sunlit clouds with a rainbow over the foothills of Black Mountain, the massive spectacle of a giant spiderweb of lightning over Black Mountain, near Sedona where red cliffs are framed by cane chollas, the reddish glow of sunset lighting an organ pipe cactus, the precarious location of the cliff edge Box Canyon ruins, the strategic location of the majestic Montezuma Castle Sinagua dwellings, The Wild Images Team Coordinator Christina at a scenic Grand Canyon overlook, The Wild Images Team Coordinator Christina in front of the Wupatki Pueblo, The Wild Images Team Coordinator Christina at the Pima Air & Space Museum, Tombstone and the Original Bird Cage Theatre history, its interior eponymic Bird Cage balcony seats, its secretive hidden door beneath the stage, through which lies the underground hidden gambling room, next to a hidden room for a lady of the night, the OK Corral Morgan Earp, Doc Holliday, Virgil Earp and Wyatt Earp and their gun fight with Tom McClaury, Frank McClaury, and Billy Clanton, the Boothill Graveyard headstone of Lester Moore and the headstone of John Heath, the reflective multicolored boatload of glass, the mass of blue and white glass atop a wall, the lighted view of purple stem vegetation glass, the lighted view of red stem vegetation glass, the closer view of the textures and shapes of Chihuly glass, the overlook view of Comet Neowise with a saguaro, which was brightly shining over the town of Cave Creek, eventually with its bright green coma and tail, as it appears to drop down into a saguaro grove, the day when rare snow fell in the Sonoran Desert and covered Black Mountain in a white blanket, the weeks of a devastating large record setting Bush Fire that continuously raged through the Superstition Mountains, the day when the Aquila Fire burned through Desert Hills causing massive destruction to a few structures, the day that the East Desert Fire nearly burned into the Cave Creek area, and then two weeks later the day when the devastating Ocotillo Fire did burn down into and throughout the estates which were protected by spectacular firefighting around the town of Cave Creek leaving behind this iconic image.
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