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The Creek Fire – now one of the largest wildfires burning in California – had just ignited at the start of Labor Day weekend as many departed into the Sierra Nevada, expecting three days of mountain bliss. Instead, unaware backpackers without cell service faced an exploding wildfire that has grown by thousands of acres daily in eastern Fresno and Madera counties since Friday night. Some are still unaccounted for. Fresno County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Tony Botti said he thought approximately 10 hikers still hadn’t been located, but weren’t officially considered missing as of Thursday afternoon. Hiker Heather Craig, reported missing...

Footage shows the smoldering ruins of the iconic Cressman's General Store in Fresno County after the Creek Fire.Cressman's General Store and Gas Station, a frequented stop for travelers headed toward Shaver or Huntington Lakes, was destroyed as the Creek Fire grew in Fresno County overnight. The walls of Cressman's General Store and Gas Station were turned to rubble, and the once-green trees surrounding it were left charred and bare. Located between Auberry Road and Cressman Road on Highway 168, the store, which has been around since 1904, sold snacks, drinks, and fishing gear for visitors flocking to the Fresno County...

45-year-old, Ari Gershman, a pulmonary doctor, was off-roading in a new four-wheel drive Jeep with his son Jack near Downieville when a gunman opened fire. The gunman killed Gershman, but his son escaped and called police. The fundraising page says the son hid for over 30 hours in the Tahoe National Forest before a search team found him. Deputies stated the gunman is believed to have shot two other people in the area on Friday. The two unidentified victims were taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries. After the victims were taken to the hospital the sheriff's office...

For 100 miles, 18-year-old Sanoma Blakeley and her horse, Goober, battled some of the toughest terrain in California’s Gold Rush country. They crossed rivers, traversed canyons, and pushed through elevation changes. It was 16 hours of heart-pumping adrenaline and incredible athleticism as this unstoppable team refused to slow down or give up. After riding all day and with the sky pitch black above them, they sprinted across the finish line to claim their first ever win at the Tevis Cup. Eight years ago, Blakely’s father found Goober listed for free on Craigslist. The purebred Arabian horse was two years old...

Southwesterly wind gusts up to 40 miles per hour are forecast to blow across Lake Tahoe Wednesday, churning waves up to three feet high, according to the National Weather Service. This could bring some surfers to the lake's north and northwest shores, says Scott McGuire with the Weather Service's Reno office. "The winds are coming unaffected across the entire length of the lake and it builds up those waves as it moves across," McGuire says. "Southerly winds are ideal but southwesterly still provides a decent fetch." Tahoe's waves aren't nearly as popular as its slopes, but when the winds kick...

The process of the Sierra Nevada spring snow melt sped up this week as a heat wave brought triple-digit temperatures to parts of the Western United States. A thawing snowpack that's massive after a brutal winter fed rivers and reservoirs with high-flowing runoff. One place that saw a stunning impact from all the runoff is Lake Tahoe. More than 12 billion gallons of water poured into the lake over the past week.

After a month of huge blizzards and “atmospheric river” storms, the Sierra Nevada snowpack — source of a third of California’s drinking water — is 177 percent of the historic average, the biggest in more than two decades. The last time there was this much snow on Feb. 1 in the Sierra was in 1995. Pete Wilson was California’s governor, “Seinfeld” was the top-rated show on television and Steve Young had just led the 49ers to a blowout win in Super Bowl XXIX. In a breathtaking shift for a state that had been mired in five years of punishing drought,...

A woman trapped for six days in the Sierra was found by her brother as she crawled along a snow-covered dirt road where she and her male companion had been testing the man's new four-wheel-drive Jeep, authorities said Thursday. Paula Lane's companion didn't survive the ordeal and died in the snow after leaving Lane in the vehicle and setting out to find help, said a spokesman for the Alpine County Sheriff's Department. Lane crawled past her companion's dead body as she was trying to make it to safety, said Undersheriff Robert Levy.

SAN DIEGO ---- Thanks to swelling reservoirs, Southern Californians won't notice at all this summer that the Sierra mountain snowpack that helps make sure local faucets continue to flow was at its lowest level in two decades this winter, state and regional officials said last week. However, some said, if the Sierra snowfalls are meager again next year, Southern Californians could face water shortages in 2008. San Diego County water suppliers draw some of their water from the melting snowpack in the Sierras. One San Diego County water leader said several factors raise questions about Southern California's increasing dependence upon...

Boxer's Wilderness Plan Favors the Few... Public Lands Should Benefit All By Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) I have the privilege of representing one of the most spectacular areas in the entire nation. California's Fourth Congressional District spans from Lake Tahoe to Yosemite, taking in vast swaths of publicly-owned land. Because the extraordinary natural resources on these public lands help meet our aesthetic, economic, biological, recreational, and even spiritual needs, it is our responsibility to manage them for the benefit of all Americans, not just an elite few. Senator Barbara Boxer has proposed legislation to designate millions of acres of...