Reader photo: From the ashes

Lee Prouty has been hiking Spokane’s Beacon Hill for more than a decade. So, when he saw the smoke from the Upriver Beacon fire last month he was worried.

“I just love the spot,” he said. “When there was the fire there I was like, ‘Oh no.’ ”

On July 27 he hiked up the hill just as the sun rose to survey the damage. On his walk he stumbled across some unexpected beauty. Bright orange pine cones bursting open and releasing their seeds in response to the heat.

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