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SPANISH FORK — More areas that have been closed for more than a month while crews battled the Pole Creek and Bald Mountain fires were reopened this week, U.S. Forest Service officials said.
Several of the Diamond Fork and Mount Nebo areas, as well as nearby roads, trails and campsites close to where the fire burned, have been reopened, U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Kathy Jo Pollock said in a statement Wednesday.
Pollock said the closures that were lifted include:
- All area, roads and trails north of Highway 6
- Loop A in Diamond Fork campground (but officials said there is no water or garbage, so campers are encouraged to bring their own water and take out anything they bring in.)
- Santaquin Canyon to Trumbolt day-use site
- Mount Nebo Scenic Byway on the sound end from the forest boundary to the intersection with Mona Pole Road
- Pole Creek Road to the end of the road (the south end of Nebo and access to the Haystack Hill area)
- Salt Creek Road to the Cottonwood Campgrounds at the south end of the Mount Nebo Scenic Byway
There was no timetable for the other closures to reopen.
The two fires burned approximately 120,810 acres, or more than 188 square miles, in southern Utah County since they sparked in late August and early September. Both were 100 percent contained by Oct. 7.
Brian Cottam, director of the Utah Division of Forestry, Fires and State Lands, said earlier this week the two fires' total cost is about $30 million. He added that the federal government would foot the bill since it started on federal land.
