In 2003, on Black Mountain just to the northwest, lightning ignited a wildfire that eventually burned across 7,000 acres ending here at the Blue Mountain Nature Trail. Because of this event, we have a unique chance to observe close-up how fire affects a ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir forest community. Follow the story fire has written on the landscape. Can you see where the fire left its mark? If you visited the trail right after the fire, you would have seen only blackened soil with no live, green plants below the trees.