Crane Flat Lookout vista over Yosemite National Park
This is a snapshot along the Google Earth flightpath over Crane Flat lookout from the Golden Gate to White Mt., which you can engage in from the Mount Diablo 2 page of this website.
Crane Flat Lookout & Helitack Base, Yosemite National Park
Crane Flat lookout being rehabilitated, late August 2008. This site is the base of the Yosemite National Park fire fighting/emergency helicopter.
Link to a full screen virtual reality panoramic photo from inside
the Crane Flat lookout at http://virtualguidebooks.com/CentralCalif/Yosemite/CraneFlat/InsideCraneFlatLO_FS.html
You can view the vista from Crane Flat lookout on a summer visit to Yosemite National Park - By driving to the Park via California Highway 120, the road that crosses the Sierra Nevada mountains through Tioga Pass. To learn about wildfire fighting - the reason that there are lookout vistas - stop along the way at the overlook described just below, and read the internet article linked to below that.
For the love of the forest, he gave the ultimate sacrifice, September 11, 1978.
Sit and
rest awhile
Listen to
the pines whisper in the light wind
Gaze at
the trees and look upward
Where
clouds pass by and day turns to night
Where
memories are everlasting
Memorial epitaph at the Rim of the World overlook to U.S. Forest Service Crew chief David Erickson, who lost his life while fighting the Stanislaus complex fire. This overlook is located along highway 120 about 17 miles west of the turnoff to the Crane Flat lookout.
“The
Greatest Good”
From a 3-DVD set, which celebrates the centennial of the U.S. Forest Service, and
which can be purchased at the link below, see these segments:
From
Disc 2:
Fire Music: Video fire images set to the film’s fire theme music
From
Disc 1, Part II –
Chapter 13. The Big blowup
Chapter 22. The 10 AM policy and smokechasers
From
Disc 1, Part III
Chapter 27. Hot Shots and Tragedy Fires
From Disc 1, Part IV
Chapter 41. Fire vs. Fire
From Disc 3:
Lookouts: History
and Lore of the fire lookout towers
W. B. Osborne:
Inventor of fire finder and panoramic camera
Cold Missouri
Waters: Emotion charged song about the Mann Gulch fire fighting tragedy
“The greatest good for the greatest number in the long run”
was the mission statement of the founder of the U.S. Forest Service. But what is
that “Greatest good” ?
http://www.fs.fed.us/greatestgood/press/mediakit/facts/pinchot.shtml
From
the Interpretive Display above, at the Rim of the World overlook:
“Beyond the river
canyon and visible here for miles in all directions are the scars of a much more
devastating kind of wildfire. From this vantage point is evidence of four major
fires. The largest was 145,980
acres in 1987.
"Under Fire"
An excellent article in the July 2008 National Geographic Magazine on the wildland fire fighting scene - which of course is why there are Lookout Vistas.
Excerpts:
"Robert Barrett, the U.S. Forest Service firefighter in charge of battling Lucky on the ground, commands his men and women in a voice raspy from years spent sucking smoke. He is 46, slight and strong, with an easy grin and a scrub-brush goatee. He tours the fire line on foot and in his pickup, divining its mood.
'Fire is cool,' Barrett says. 'It's cool trying to figure it out, seeing what you can do about it. It's a mental exercise. You never know what it's gonna do.'
Stones ping off the truck as Barrett steers down a road that is little more than a welt of dirt between ravines. His guitar, stashed beneath the seat, twangs in its case. He coughs often in long, wet runs. The heat and storms of smoke and dust have not dulled the thrill of a good burn. 'I love my job. It keeps me out of jail.' A fireman's joke."
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/07/fire-season/shea-text.html
Yosemite Park emergency/fire
helicopter lifting off on a
medical emergency mission. The
second photo on the page has an inset of a monument at the Rim of the World
overlook along route 120 leading to Crane Flat to a California Department of
Forestry helitack crew member who died on a firefighting mission.
Helicopter crew practicing
aerial extraction maneuver at Crane Flat base.
Yosemite Valley Portal Overlook
Cloud
Dragon standing guard over Yosemite Valley
This
photo was taken from the Valley Portal overlook along the road that descends
into Yosemite Valley away from Crane Flat Lookout/Helibase. It looks down the
Merced River Canyon towards Bridal Veil Falls.
Driving Directions to Crane Flat Lookout / Helitack Base:
From the junction of Interstate 680 and 580, midway between Mt. Diablo and Mt. Hamilton in the San Francisco Bay area:
Drive east on I-580 about 40 miles to Manteca, CA. At Manteca continue east on CA route 120 just under 100 miles into Yosemite National Park. A couple of miles west of Crane Flat, you will see a yellow fire engine symbol sign, and a narrow paved road takes off to the left, north 1 1/2 miles uphill to the Crane Flat LO/Helitack base. There is a "Crane Flat Lookout" sign at that road junction. Drive slowly up this road and be prepared to pull over for oncoming traffic.