Battle Creek Vista Point - California Highway 36

The Battle Creek Vista Point is on the north side of California Highway 36 in Tehama County about 10 miles west of Mineral.  At an elevation of about 3300 feet, it is about 1000 feet above Battle Creek.  The valley is just beginning to recover one year after the Ponderosa Fire of August 2012.  The following information is from the Cal Fire website listed at the bottom of this post.  The fire started on August 18, 2012 and burned 27,676 acres in Tehama and Shasta Counties.  It destroyed 52 residences and 81 outbuildings and damaged another residence and five outbuildings.  We stopped one year later on the way to Lassen Volcanic National Park and were met by an elderly man who had to evacuate his dwelling.  He described how the valley looked before the fire.

Pockets of green survived the fire near the mouth of Grapevine Canyon

A dirt road is now visible on the far valley wall

Looking down into the South Fork Battle Creek valley

Looking northeast up the valley toward Mount Lassen

The vista point is near N40.356, W121.781.

The Cal Fire website for the Ponderosa Fire is http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_details_info?incident_id=722.