The smoke plume from the Sunflower fire as seen from the north side of Payson looking south toward Phoenix. We experienced this on our drive back to Phoenix/Mesa. It was about 4 o'clock in the afternoon and the sun provided an effective backlight for the plume. The fire is in the Mazatzal mountains east of US87 a little north of Sunflower where I have hiked many tmies. It is about 20 to 25 miles south of where this picture was taken and does not threaten the town of Payson. But I can see why scenes like this cause AZ's many mountain communities to shake in their boots at the mention of wild fires. Thiis is a composite panorama stitched together from 4 different shots, each covering a bit of the horizon. Use the slider at the bottom of the window to pan this photo horizontally.
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