HOTSHOTS MEMORIAL PARK, YARNELL

This blog is about the hike I led in December 2016 into the Memorial Park in Yarnell that commemorates the Prescott Granite Mountain Hotshots who perished there on June 30, 2013.  My blog describes this hike and gives some background about the Yarnell Hill fire.   Included in this blog are photos I took on the hike, various maps I have produced since, and the story of what happened on that fateful day.
    Note that the Hotshots had successfully been fighting the Doce Fire to the SW of Prescott in the previous days, including saving the giant juniper.

The Yarnell hike is very worthwhile and will give you a good appreciation of the rugged terrain, and a better perspective of what the Hotshots experienced.  Be aware that the hike is strenuous – most of it is through the area burned back in 2013.  By my GPS it is 7.3 miles round trip.  There is a steep and continuous climb for the first two miles (ascending 1200 feet), then fairly level for half a mile to the Observation Deck.  This new trail has been named the "Hotshots Trail". The new "Journey Trail" then descends about 500 feet for a mile to the fatality site. 

Map 1 shows the hike from the trailhead (TH) up to the Observation Deck on the Hotshots Trail, and then down to the fatality site on the Journey Trail.  Twenty foot contours emphasize the steep topography.  For each location, the map shows elevations, mileages from the TH, and our arrival time on our outward journey.  (Directions to the TH and its parking area are given at the end of this blog.)  I suggest you do NOT take this hike in the summer – there is no shade (however remember, the hotshots were there in June with all their gear).  Take plenty of water – none is available on the trail.

This photo on the right is near the start of the hike.  By this point, the memorial plaques have begun, one for each of the Hotshots, embedded into large boulders every 100 yards or so.  This narrow dirt trail zig-zags upwards for what seems like forever – completed in 2016.  Some vegetation  has grown back in the years since the fire.  Farther up, where the trail climbs between lots of boulders, you keep passing dead trees right next to the trail.  These trees have reddish wood beneath the scorched bark – sugar sumac.  These are deciduous trees than can grow to 15’ tall.  In some places, this attractive tree is coming back to life – the intense fire did not kill the roots.

This photo on the left is looking down onto US 89, descending Yarnell Hill towards the town of Congress.  Elephant Curve is out of sight, below the unburned vegetation in the foreground.  You can see part of the divided highway – the new wider road on the left is for uphill, and the old road on the right is now for downhill only (it used to be for traffic in both directions!).

When you see this interesting rock formation, you are getting close to the top of the climb.  This wasn’t far from the point where all of the hotshot crew trekked to with their heavy backpacks and tools, on the morning of June 30, 2013 after they arrived from Prescott.  That point was over a mile from where they left their buggies – some of the way was over old roads/trails, some through dense chaparral around 6 foot high.   They went there to create a firebreak on the upwind side of where the fire was then.  They died later that same day.  Note a few blackened branches of the brush sticking up – burned back in 2013.

This sign below is by the Observation Deck, looking down on the fatality site – 1/2 mile past the top of the steep climb. 

The photo on the right half of the sign was taken two weeks after the disaster and shows the charred mountainside leading down to a flat area, with Yarnell in the distance.  The dirt road shown in the flat area ends at the fatality site, and was created after the fire by a bulldozer to give easy access from Boulder Springs Ranch and Yarnell – it did not exist at the time of the fire.  This bulldozed road is NOT open to the public.

The aerial map on the left half of the sign shows the extent of the Yarnell Hill fire.  You can see highway 89 on the right side of the map, coming south from Prescott/Kirkland into Yarnell and then going SW as it winds down Yarnell Hill – mainly outside of the fire area.  This map has seven numbers, which are listed in the middle of the sign, and describe the sequence of events and the wind conditions on that Sunday.  My map below (Map 2) is of a similar area, but shows roads, tracks and 100 foot contours.  I have added the same numbers to my map.

Here is what the sign says about these seven locations:

1. The Hotshots hiked to the SE corner of the fire to secure the upwind side by building a fire line at 9:30am.
2. Until 2:00pm, winds blew out of the south, continuing to push the fire north.
3. At 3:00pm, the fire made an extreme run north pushed by stronger winds, towards Peeples Valley.
4. Winds shifted 180º pushing the flame-front towards Yarnell.  At 3:35pm, the Hotshot lookout (Brendan McDonough) is forced to abandon his position.
5. By 4:00pm, the Hotshots’ position now consists of burnt vegetation (called "the black").  They relocate, moving east into the canyon where they cannot see the fire.
6. Other firefighters were forced to disengage from their position in Yarnell in front of a fast moving fire at 4:22pm.  At approximately the same time, the fire reached the eastern end of the canyon the Hotshots were going down.
7. At 4:41pm, the final communication came from the Hotshots, indicating they were in trouble. 

You can see the fatality site in the photo on the right, taken a short distance below the Observation Deck.  The small circle in the middle of this photo is where the Hotshots died.   In the foreground the leaves are of a sugar sumac tree that has started to grow back since the fire – the dead branches are still sticking up.  The photo also shows how rocky the hillsides are, including the large boulders in the foreground – not easy terrain to get through especially when covered by tall and dense brush, called chaparral.  A friend of mine did some surveying on Yarnell Hill a few years before the fire.  He told me the chaparral was so dense in places that the only way he could get through was to crawl on his hands and knees following an animal track!

This photo is a telephoto shot of the site from the Observation Deck, looking down the steep hillside.  The circle is 19 gabions – a gabion being scores of small local rocks encased in a metal frame (the next photo shows just what a gabion looks like).  The photo on the right shows lots of green around the circle – the low vegetation has recovered very quickly over the years since the fire.

The one-mile hike down to the fatality site, 500 feet below, is very much worth the effort and makes you realize how close together the Hotshots were as the fire swept over them (see photo on right).  They kept their discipline as a team, knowing there was no escape.  The metal crosses were put in place shortly after the fire, to mark where each body was found.  You can see parts of two gabions in the foreground, linked by two chains to remind curious visitors to not trespass on this sacred ground.

 This photo was taken from the fatality site, looking up the rocky valley – down which the Hotshots descended – leaving the black and going towards the west side of Yarnell and the safety of Boulder Springs Ranch.  Eric Marsh, the Hotshots leader, had checked out this ranch earlier in the day and knew it was a fire-safe location.

In 2013, there was no nice zig-zagging path for them to use – they had to cut there way though the tall chaparral.  As they descended, the hill on the right side of the photo prevented them from seeing the raging fire surging towards them.

The roof of the Observation Deck can just be seen breaking the skyline, about halfway between the low point and the left edge of the photo.

When you hike back up to the Observation Deck stop at the hairpin bend shortly before the top and read the sign there (see photo below).

The text on the sign describes what the Hotshots did on the fateful day, first in the morning and then after lunch.  Brendan McDonough, the only surviving Hotshot, was posted as a lookout on top of a hill as indicated in the photo that is the top half of the sign.  My earlier map shows that hilltop, and the old roads in the surrounding area.  By 3:50 pm, shifting winds had forced him to evacuate his position and escape with another Hotshot team from Blue Ridge, who drove all of the buggies to safety.  Things became very chaotic for the firefighters close to Highway 89, with the fire progressing rapidly south towards Yarnell, forcing evacuation of the town.  Shortly after that time, the 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots made the fateful decision to go down the valley towards Yarnell.  The hilly ridge to their left hid their view of where the fire was going.  The smoke, and problems with communications, prevented them from knowing they were advancing into the path of the raging fire.

This aerial view of the fatality site gives you some idea of how heavy the vegetation was in the area surrounding the fatality site two years before the fire (2011).  The green path is the current Journey Trail, winding down to the fatality site (small green circle). 

The grey color is the boulders – most dense on the hillside above the valley that the Hotshots descended.  The dark green color is various trees and bushes.  It looks like the Hotshots chose to make their last stand in an area that was more open.

NOTE:  Teams of volunteers built the trails in the Memorial Park.  They were from the American Conservation Experience (ACE), a charitable organization – one of their centers is in Flagstaff.  ACE started trail construction in January 2016 and completed their work in June.  If you hike these trails, you will appreciate the challenge and the great job these volunteers did, led by experienced ACE trail builders. 

Before construction began, Chris Hosking (the City of Prescott trail’s specialist) explored and defined the steep and winding route of the Hotshots Trail.  The trail keeps a steady upward grade and was designed to avoid damage by heavy rains and runoff.  Chris did this work in his own time. 

We should all thank these volunteers for their arduous labors.

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ACCESS TO THE GRANITE MOUNTAIN HOTSHOTS MEMORIAL PARK

Map 2 in the Blog above will help you understand the following directions.

• Coming from the north on US 89 (Prescott), the trailhead is after you have driven through Yarnell and Glen Ilah going south, and the road has become divided highway – you will be on the narrow southbound lane.  The TH is on the right at milepost 274.3 (that is, 0.7 miles past MP 275).
• Coming from the south on US 89 (Wickenburg and Congress), the TH is not accessible from the wide northbound lanes.  Instead you have to drive up to the connector road that gives access to the southbound lane (this is just past MP 275).  Go left onto this connector road, then left again onto the southbound lane, and drive down for 0.7 miles to the TH.
• When you depart, everyone has to drive down the southbound lane for about 2.3 miles to where the divided highway ends and the southbound lane bends to the left by the bottom of the hill (this point is around MP 272).  Continue southwest to reach Congress and Wickenburg.  To return to Prescott, you will need to do a U-turn on US 89 wherever you think it is safe, and drive back up the hill to Yarnell and then onward to Prescott.

PARKING AT THE TRAILHEAD

• The parking at the TH is limited – room for about 15 vehicles.  There is some extra parking north of the TH by the connector road between the north and the southbound lanes.  
• To reach this extra parking, you will need to drive down past the TH to the bottom of the hill and do a U-turn (follow the directions for “When you depart …” from TH access above).  From this extra parking you will have to walk down the southbound lane to reach the TH, being on the lookout for traffic coming down behind you.
• There was a porta-potty at the TH in December 2016, but it may no longer be there.