Just arrived in Estes Park to help @CPRNews cover the #EastTroublesomeFire. The air is thick with stanky smoke - I smelled it way down the canyon as I drove up.

Waiting for the Big Horn to open so I can fuel up on coffee. I used to work the opening shift here, slinging joe.

Got my coffee. So did Hygiene firefighters Nicole Palestro, Kirsten Barry and Dylan Miraglia before their day shift starts.

Nicole shrugs when I ask if this has been a tougher year than most.

"They're just having a hard time catching it."

"Were hoping for the snow."

It was a pretty, gloomy, firesoaked sunrise here over Lake Estes.

Trying to limit time outside. It is that bad.

. @_msakas and I are sitting in a parking lot ash drizzle. No comment from the birds.

VERY smoky just north of town, part 1

Part 2

Estes Park officer Andrew Johnson lives down this hill in Glen Haven, which was hit hard by the floods here in 2013. He evacuated a week ago, and he sure hopes his home is ok. The hamlet is home to a lot of law enforcement, and the situation has made their jobs more complicated.

Nicole Casey lives at the top of this hill, where access to Glen Haven stops. She's been serving pallets of snacks and drinks to first responders. Flames haven't hit the small town, she said, in part thanks to firefighters who have been living down there in the smoke.

Estes Park evacuations have begun.

It is dark as night and the roads are GRID LOCKED. The roads down the mountain must be creeping.

It feels like the apocalypse and I'm still stuck in traffic listening to NPR.

I was here for the 2013 flood. Can confirm, this is nuttier.

One more of these. This is highway 34 looking east.

I keep forgetting it's the afternoon.