Some of the burn zone of the Horse Gulch Fire reopened to the public [Video]

HELENA — Earlier this summer, the Horse Gulch Fire burned thousands of acres near Canyon Ferry Lake. Well, starting this Friday, some of that area has been reopened to the public.

The Forest Service has done a lot of work to make this happen.

“You know, making sure that there’s not still stuff smoldering and, you know, embers of smoke coming up and the trees aren’t hanging precariously over a trail or a road, things of that nature. Like I said, I can’t be specific, but that’s the kind of work that we would be doing after a fire,” says Matthew Ferrell, the Partnership Coordinator for the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest.

Ferrell says that cooler and wetter conditions this August allowed for an earlier opening.

“Usually a fire like this we would be waiting for a large rain or snow event usually sometime in the fall to be real …