Fire Tyuonyi Overlook Trail Stop 4

the Las Conchas Wildfire burned the mesa across Frijoles Canyon in 2011.

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Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Scenic View/Photo Spot

Fire has always been a part of life in the Bandelier area and fires likely burned this area many times while the Ancestral Pueblo people lived here. From studying tree rings scientists know that the natural fire cycle here was a low intensity fire every fifteen years or so. In recent decades several large-scale landscape altering fires have affected this terrain. All of these fires have been caused by human activity. Las Conchas Wildfire in 2011 was the largest, intensely burning over ¾ of the park and having impacts far into the future. That fire reached the mesa across the canyon from you and threatened to destroy the historic park visitor center in the canyon below until heroic firefighting efforts quelled its progress. Look at the difference in vegetation from this side of the canyon to far side. That is the result of fire removing most of the larger trees and leaving more open grasslands.